The Guardian of Valor Lake
by Dr.Phill26
Summary: 500 years ago, the Aura Guardians served as protectors of peace. Together with their partner Pokémon, they travel the world maintaining order and searching for warriors who show potential as defenders of life. Veris Blackthorn is not one of these warriors, until the day his life is utterly destroyed before his eyes, and the dormant aura inside of him begins to awaken.
1. Spark of Beginnings

**A/N: Oh man I'm excited you guys, brand new story for you guys to enjoy, my second on this site and I am excited you guys, brand new story for you guys to enjoy, my second on this site and I am excited. Did I already say that... yeah I did. Anyway, I've been quietly planning this story out for a couple months in addition to working on my other story. (feel free to check that out if you like something with a bit of lemon in it) But now this new story is ready to start seeing the light of day so here you go guys. But before we officially begin a new journey together, I just want to take a second for a quick shout-out to you dear reader for being awesome and checking out this story. Now let's get started shall we?**

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><p>"Big surprise, Olin's taking forever to get ready." Veris sighed with his hand on his chin as he sat impatiently on the steps in front of their home. Olin did this all the time; it always seemed like he would forget something important around the house every day. Veris didn't understand how he could stay so forgetful even at fifteen years old. Today the two of them were supposed to go fishing, and if they didn't leave now it would be an hour past noon before they got to Lake Valor. Veris knew from experience that the Magikarp in the lake didn't bite as well in the evening as they did in the afternoon, which only added to his irritation with Olin's forgetfulness. If they wanted a good haul today, they needed to get moving now. The sound of the door opening behind him got his attention. Looking over his shoulder, Veris saw his brother straightening out his green tricorn hat and kicking the door closed behind him.<p>

"Lovely day today, wouldn't you say Veris?" Olin smiled at his brother in his usual friendly manner. If Veris didn't know better, he'd think his younger brother had no idea he was upset with him for taking so long to get ready.

"We could already be at the lake if you hadn't lost your hat." Veris dryly remarked.

"I wasn't looking for my hat." Olin stretched his arms above his head looking at the clouds. "I was looking for Taiyō."

"I'm pretty sure it's in the same place it always is this time of day." Veris scoffed as he pointed at the sun that shone brightly above them.

"That's clever Veris, but you know I'm not talking about that sun. I'm talking about this one." Olin grabbed the hilt of a Kukri machete holstered on his back and unsheathed it. He angled the polished steel blade so it reflected sunlight straight into Veris' eyes, forcing him look away. Taiyō really was an appropriate name for this blade with how radiantly it shone in the mid-morning light. Having partially blinded his brother, Olin let out a satisfied laugh and re-sheathed his weapon.

"Are you done wasting time Olin? Can we finally get going?" Veris growled, blinking repeatedly to regain his vision.

"Oh loosen up Veris." Olin grabbed a rucksack of assorted goods and threw it over his shoulder, walking past his brother. Veris finally smiled himself, picking up his own sack and the fishing rod lying against it as he caught up to Olin and the two of them walked towards the gate in front of their home.

"Hey wait a minute you two!" A voice yelled out behind them as Veris reached to open the gate. Annoyed, he turned around and looked back at the house seeing his mother sticking her head out the window, with her wavy chestnut brown hair blowing in the breeze.

"Did you forget something else?" Veris muttered to Olin who started checking the pockets of his rucksack.

"I'm pretty sure I have everything I need."

"What is it mom?" Veris hollered to his mother.

"Are you boys going out hunting again?" His mother's voice sweetly carried across the yard sounding like a songbird.

"Yes mum." Olin responded as Veris rolled his eyes. It should have been obvious considering he was holding his fishing rod and both Olin and him had a rucksack, along with their respective Kukri sheathed and attached to the leather belts around their tunics. "Do you need us to get anything while we're out?"

"Not really, I just wanted to wish the two of you good luck. I'll see you boys later tonight once you've returned."

"Bye mom." Veris and Olin said together as they both stepped outside the gate.

"I love you!" Mom yelled back as she watched her two sons wave goodbye as they walked towards the center of town.

As the two brothers made their way through Arrowroot Village they both made idle chatter with the neighbors they walked past. Traveling merchants were busy setting up shop in the center of the village next to a large oak tree. They were selling a variety of goods from jarred berries, to clothing and jewelry, to weapons of varying quality and design. The more local merchants were setting up streamers and decorations atop their shops. It reminded Veris that the Lifestream festival was coming soon. Not that he really cared; he never got that excited for festivals. But Olin would always count the days until a new festival made its way to town, and the Lifestream festival was the largest of the year.

The Lifestream festival was always held in August and celebrated the birth of Princess Cervina, the heir to the royal family that ruled over Arrowroot. Veris and Olin had to walk past her family's mansion as they continued towards the lake. It stood three stories tall, made of brick and white stone that had too many windows to count. Being the epitome of luxury, complete with an overly gaudy fountain before the front door, the royal family's mansion was hugely different in both size and style compared to the thatch houses of the rest of the village. Sure it was pretty to look at, but in Veris' eyes, it was nothing more than an elaborately built eyesore. There was no way something that obscenely large could have any practical use aside from showing off just how rich the royal family was. Or maybe it was supposed to be that big to hold in the family's collective egos. Mentioning that joke to Olin got a quick laugh as they continued towards the village outskirts.

Now leaving the village fully, Veris and Olin began walking through the forest trails that would take them to their favorite hunting grounds on Lake Valor. They walked past plenty of Pokémon on their way to the lake, seeing a group of Bibarel gathering food of their own off in the distance. Veris was getting eager to join them in the hunt for food, increasing the length of his stride as they neared the lake. He left Olin in his dust as he finally made it the tree line and saw the lakefront.

It was a picturesque day at the lake, with the sun shining down and shimmering on the crystal clear water. The only thing breaking the perfect glass like stillness of the water was a large rock formation jutting out of the lake's center. A common story floating through Arrowroot was that a legendary Pokémon lived in that rock formation and was the reason this lake stayed both so beautiful throughout the year and equally plentiful with its fish. Veris jogged his way towards his favorite fishing spot on the lake, a fairly large pile of rocks on the southern shore that offered great shade in the afternoon hours. It was perfect for a nap once the fish stopped biting, but that wasn't going to be for a few hours still. Veris hoped that by that time he could get a good haul and started sprinting towards his home away from home. By the time Olin caught up to his brother, Veris had already sat down under the rocks with his rucksack besides him and was baiting his hook for casting.

"You look happy to be back here." Olin said dropping his rucksack to the ground, the equipment inside making an assortment of clinking noises.

"Always am Olin, always will be." Veris grinned as he cast the line into lake. The cork bobber sailed through the air plopping harmlessly into the glassy lake, scattering a single ripple across the lake's surface.

"Well, you're already set up, so I'll get out of your hair. Think I'll try my hand at catching one of those Bibarel we passed earlier."

"You're still trying to chase tail Olin?" Veris smirked as he playfully shoved Olin back a step towards the edge of the lake. "I've seen you try to go after Ellora. She is way too pretty to be with a scruff like you."

"I can keep trying can't I?" Olin laughed innocently as he searched through his rucksack and grabbed a length of rope. "One of these days she'll fall for me, you'll see. And then you're going to eat those words."

"I'd rather be eating Bibarel tail. You know, something I can actually eat."

"Okay, point taken." Olin laughed again as he readjusted his hat. "I'll be back once I've caught one, see you then." Veris nodded and held up his hand in a half wave as Olin went back to the forest. The gradually diminishing sound of crunching gravel beneath his boots left Veris to his own reflective thoughts.

Staring out at the open lake, without seeing a single creature stirring on the surface was very calming, almost meditative for Veris. Sitting back and becoming one with nature around him was what he enjoyed most about fishing, and not the possibility of catching one of the many Magikarp or more elusive Goldeen in the lake. As the silent stillness emptied his mind completely, it felt like he would become part of the lake itself. This self-induced trance heightened his senses, allowing him to reach out past the confines of his body and touch the world around him in a more spiritual way.

A scattering of pebbles made Veris snap out of his highly attentive state, making him poke his head out of the rocky shade. He thought maybe it could be Olin already back with a successful catch of his own. Through the years, Veris noticed that time liked to quickly by on him whenever he went fishing, but he could have sworn it was only a minute since Olin left. It was probably more likely that his ever forgetful brother had forgotten something yet again. But looking around, he saw instead of his forgetful brother a pair of Ponyta, a mother and her child walking towards the lake so they could get a drink. The younger foal timidly looked at her mother who nodded at her child, watching over her as she cautiously made her way to the lakeshore. With the mother looking over carefully, the younger Ponyta began drinking form the lake. The mother continued watching her surroundings for a moment longer before she too joined her child. It was a peaceful sight watching their fiery manes blow in the wind, with the occasional ember blowing off over the lake. The younger Ponyta stopped drinking and looked in Veris' direction, seeing him and staring at him. The mother soon joined her as both wild Pokémon looked at the human curiously.

Veris was going to wave to them but as he was about to, he felt his fishing rod wiggle in his left hand. He tightened his grip on the rod and stared intensely at the bobber as it rocked back and forth on the water's surface. Suddenly it jerked underwater and a powerful force tried to rip the fishing rod out of Veris' hands. Veris smirked as he grabbed the rod tightly and gave a single hard pull back knowing he'd hooked something. He could tell from the intensity of the tug the fish made on the line that it couldn't be a Goldeen. They were much more docile; it had to be a Magikarp. Another quick tug on the line with his hands was all he'd need, and that pathetic fish was as good as his. Veris shaped his right hand around the base of the rod, waiting until he was ready before grabbing it and jerked the rod back.

It took Veris a moment to realize that he was standing up after fully grabbing the rod and giving it his second pull. He stood there astounded; no Magikarp had ever forced him to stand when he reeled it in since he was eight. He'd been fishing here for ten years and never experienced a fight since his very first that forced him to his feet, let alone right at the beginning of the battle. Whatever he'd hooked on the other side was a monster and got Veris' blood boiling, sending adrenaline coursing through his veins. Whatever this thing was, it was ready for a fight and Veris was going to give him one hell of a good one.

He let the line unravel wildly off the top of the reel while he thought about how best to attack this beast. Veris gave it another simple pull, lighter this time as he tried to see if this thing was still as resilient as it was at first tug. Considering his feet dragged into the gravel a few inches again, it seemed clear that this thing was still full of strength. He needed to use something as an anchor to help him. Looking behind him, Veris grinned as he realized the rock formation he loved so much could help him do just that. The pull on the line suddenly became less intense; here was a chance to challenge this thing.

Agilely, Veris vaulted over the rock formation behind him, braced himself against the rocks with his knees, grabbed the spinning handle firmly, and with all the strength he could muster, held the handle steady as he pulled. The rod strained from the force on both ends of the line as both Veris and his fishy opponent fought for control in their battle. They reached a stalemate with neither side making any progress, which was a step in the right direction for Veris. He could literally feel momentum beginning to shift his way. Carefully, he shuffled his feet closer to the base for extra leverage and started reeling in the monster with the crank. It wasn't easy, he could both hear and see the strain his efforts were putting on the line and the rod as it creaked in his arms. Veris turned the reel a couple times and held himself in place as the beast resumed his aggressive fight. The struggle was intense as Veris lost his footing for a second and was pulled into the rocks, but still held on to his rod. Pain stung into his knee only for a second from the impact, but faded in an instant as he stood up with a scowl on his face. Now Veris was pissed. Not only had this fish brought him to his feet, but then knocked him back down to his knees. There was no way in hell he wouldn't catch this thing now.

With a roar of strength, Veris clamped down on the rod with both hands and cranked the reel with every single ounce of strength he could manage. Every joint in his body was feeling the effects of this fight. His hands were cramping up, his knees ached, his feet hurt and his arms felt like they were on fire as they cried in agony from all the effort it took to reel in this catch. But he could see and feel the progress as the line became weaker with each crank. The beast was finally giving up! That angry scowl from a moment ago was morphing into an excited grin. Whatever this monster was, he was going to catch it. But before Veris could celebrate further, he soon felt himself fall backwards onto the gravel behind the rocks with a thump as he stared up at the sky.

"What the…" Veris sat up and looked down at the rod in his hand and gave it a pull. He felt no resistance whatsoever in his tug. "You've got to be kidding me. The line broke!" An irritated scream came from his lips as Veris pounded his fist into the gravel. After all that work, effort and suffering he'd gone through in this struggle, it comes to an end through broken equipment? He couldn't believe it; he refused to accept that and furiously began reeling in the line. Desperately Veris stood up and cranked on the reel wanting to continue the fight, but the slack in the line told him that he was out of luck. Angrily Veris threw the rod towards the forest hoping that it would break into pieces, but it stayed in one piece. He fell back to the ground once again in a heap and watched the clouds lazily drift their way across the sky. Even the heavens seemed to be mocking him as Veris watched a fish shaped cloud block out the sun, reminding him of what had just gotten away.

"This will be a real funny story later, but right now I'm just pissed off." Veris growled as he placed his hand over his eyes in frustration. He'd given up; there was no way that he was going to find any strength to continue fishing today, especially not with a broken line. Veris just lay there with defeat washing over him like a tidal wave, literally so as a large amount of water crashed over him seemingly out of nowhere.

Surprised, Veris sat up and looked at his no longer dry clothes. The navy blue tunic beneath his black leather cuirass was sopping wet and clung to his wrists and chest. Despite his brown colored pants being tucked into black boots, a few errant drops of water still made their way down his leg and into his boots, getting his feet wet. Even the studded gray vambrace on his left wrist was equally wet as water traced its way around an embedded emblem that Veris designed himself. It was a blood red raindrop that had black thorns surrounding it like sunbeams and a silver flame in the center of it, with the entire emblem surrounded with a white outline. This emblem, modeled after his family crest of Blackthorn was supposed to bring him good luck. But considering just how completely and utterly soaked Veris was, and the fact that he had failed to catch the fish from earlier, it didn't seem to be doing its job.

"Yeah, great, this is exactly what I needed right now." Veris complained internally as he stood up and began shaking the water off himself. Water from the lake had gotten everywhere it seemed as he stood in the middle of a puddle that quickly grew even larger than he was. Standing at just under six feet tall, Veris wasn't exactly small either. He had a very strong core body with a good amount of muscle that he'd gained through all the hunting and fishing he'd done over the years. But strength doesn't save you from getting shivers running down your spine as a gust of wind blew against Veris' body, chilling his powerful core. Noticing he was still standing in the shade, Veris looked up to see how much longer that mocking fish shaped cloud was going to block the sun before it could heat him back up.

A pair of menacing red eyes glared back at him as a monstrous blue creature stood over him, blocking Veris' view of the sun. Its mouth hung open baring four massive and very sharp looking canine teeth. A pair of blue colored whiskers flared off the side of its face on the underside of its gaping mouth. Veris instinctively took a few steps backwards which really set the scale of this monster in perspective. It was massive, easily standing a good thirteen feet out of the water. Its underbelly was yellow, matching a series of spots along the blue scales of its back. Two large white fins protruded off its back with another starting to break through the surface of the lake. Veris found himself with his jaw dropped as he was staring face to face with a Gyarados, and he did not look friendly.

"Um… hello." Veris timidly waved at this intimidating behemoth that towered over him. The Gyarados' eyes narrowed even more, being accented with the three pointed crest in the center of its forehead. It arched its body backwards before leaning in closer to Veris and let out a piercing roar that had to have been heard back in Arrowroot from how loud it was. Veris could feel the beast's raw power in his bones as he saw the Gyarados snarling at him with malicious intent.

"Nice… giant sea monster, please don't eat me." Veris cautiously backed away with his hands raised in defense, still trying his best not to anger the Gyarados any more than he apparently already had. Why was this thing even attacking him in the first place? To his knowledge Veris hadn't done anything to make it angry. He took another step backwards, stumbling over the fishing rod he'd thrown earlier and picked it up, with his eyes following the scraggly path of the line. It was a jumbled mess on the rocks, but skipping all the gnarls and tangles he looked up and saw it pick up off the ground and in the direction of the monster in the lake before him with the line's path ended inside the Gyarados' fiercely intimidating mouth.

"Wait… I caught you?" Veris looked back and forth from the sea serpent and the fishing rod in disbelief. There had to be another explanation, but the proof was literally in his hands. Veris was holding the fishing rod he was using earlier, and the line was in this thing's mouth. The Gyarados seemed to realize the same thing as his eyes became even more intense as he let out yet another bellowing roar and glared at the human that would soon feel his wrath. Gyarados closed its mouth and arched its back once again before opening it and releasing a torrent of water from its mouth straight at Veris. He only just managed to dodge the attack, diving to his left as the water crashed into the gravel where he was standing, sending small pebbles flying in every direction.

"Whoa! That was pretty close." Veris laughed nervously as he looked at the muddy ground where the attack hit. He looked up in time to see another column of water shooting towards him. Veris dove forward this time, once again barely dodging the attack and rolling into a kneeling position.

"Okay, you want to play that game?" Veris growled as he grabbed the hilt of his own Kukri strapped behind his lower back with his left hand. He unsheathed it, spinning the handle in his hand twice to flourish the blade as he readied his fighting stance. Veris stood in a half crouching position, extending his left hand out towards the Gyarados. He held his Kukri so the bent blade extended away from his body, the bending angle curving back slightly towards the outside of his left arm. His right arm was held up in a fist, extended half as far out. Putting a spring in his step, Veris relaxed his breathing as he focused on his target.

"Alright then, let's do this." Once more the Gyarados spat another water attack at Veris. He jumped backwards, watching the attack crash into the rocks where he stood, a small wave washing harmlessly against his boots. The Gyarados cried out in rage once again as he spat out a volley of water attacks. Veris lazily hopped to his left, dodging the first one, did a back handspring to dodge the second, and using the momentum landed in a running position and sprinted to his right. Veris had always prided himself in his speed. He was the fastest and most agile person in Arrowroot, and he liked to incorporate his agility into his fighting style. He was very good at dodging attacks, especially slow moving attacks like this Gyarados' watery assault, as another attack crashed into the rocks behind him. Furthermore, he could also use his agility to his advantage in close combat skirmishes. He'd get in close to his enemy and target their limbs with a series of deceptively heavy cuts from his Kukri, weakening them over time. And as their strength literally bled out of their body, his opponents would lose the ability to defend themselves, which opened them up to more lethal strikes. Unfortunately that wasn't a strategy he could use against the giant sea snake that was continuing to spit yet another torrential stream of water at him.

"Are you still trying that water thing? That's not going to work on me!" Veris taunted as he planted his feet in the ground to dodge yet another attack that was aimed in front of him. He turned towards the Gyarados, spinning the handle of his Kukri in his hand to mock the beast's inability to hit him. The Gyarados' seemingly permanent scowl thickened as he prepared himself for another attack. This time however, instead of water being spat out of his mouth, it was fire. A volley of blue colored flames raced towards Veris as he stood there on the shoreline. But despite the fierceness of the attack, the flames were moving slower than the water from before, meaning he could dodge them. Veris weaved his way through the shower of blue embers effortlessly, even slashing at a few of them with his Kukri to cut them in half, showing off how unimpressed he was with the attack.

"You were so much more of a challenge on the rod." Veris nonchalantly sighed as he watched the embers smoke along the ground. But even as he stood there unscathed from all the attacks, Veris still knew he was at a disadvantage in this fight. As long as Gyarados kept him at a distance with its attacks, the battle would stay in a stalemate. He needed to close the gap between them to fight back. Seeing no other option, Veris cracked his neck to the side twice and took up his combat stance again.

Gyarados roared as another stream of water shot towards Veris, who charged forward once the attack was launched. He ran beneath the attack, racing towards the surprised Gyarados. Once he reached the edge of the lake, Veris jumped up in front of his foe, pulling the Kukri towards his chest, aiming the foot and a half long blade towards the serpent. Gyarados leaned his body back to dodge the attack while also opening his mouth. Veris saw an attack brewing in the beasts' belly and his eyes grew wide, realizing he'd made a mistake. Another wave of water erupted from his gaping maw, catching Veris completely exposed, as it pushed him back with a torrential force. He flew helplessly through the air, landing on his back before his favorite fishing spot, violently rolling over a few times and crashing against those rocks on his side. Pain clung to him as heavily as his clothes once again did as Veris pushed himself to his feet. His entire body ached as he stood against the rocks, breathing heavily as he glared at the Gyarados that still towered over him.

"Okay, not bad. You're a bit smarter than I thought." Veris panted as he raised himself back to a fighting stance, noticing his Kukri wasn't in his left hand. He found it lying a few feet away to his left. Quickly Veris ran over to it, picking it up in stride and seeing more blue fire arcing towards him. Gyarados was putting up a fight, and a smart one at that. Veris had to dive forward, only just dodging this newest volley of flames as they singed the ground where his weapon lay a moment ago. Picking himself up again, Veris saw another water attack streaming towards him and crossed his arms before him to brace the impact. The wave crashed over him, pushing him back down to a knee from the sheer force of his attack. Thinking quickly, Veris tucked himself into a ball, letting the attack's power consume him and roll him farther away from the beast, but more importantly out of the stream. Gyarados saw this and changed his aim but Veris was faster, springing back to life and threw himself out of the way of the adjusted attack.

"Is that all you've got?" Veris barked from his knees as he wiped a mixture of water, sweat and dirt off his face while catching his breath. He rolled to his right as he saw another attack shoot towards where he lay. "I thought you would be more of a challenge, but all you've done so far is splash a little water at me and piss me off. I'm done playing games with you." Veris stood to his feet spinning the handle of his Kukri in his hand around in a circle before grasping it firmly and taking an aggressive combat stance. Instead of his usual backhanded grip, Veris now held his Kukri with the blade on the thumb side of his left hand with the bent machete blade extended towards the Gyarados. "Bring it on you overgrown water snake!"

Suddenly, a faint red glow surrounded Gyarados' entire body as his venomous stare became its most furious and intense yet. He arched his body back as a faint ball of white light began forming inside his mouth which quickly intensified in size. The same red color that surrounded Gyarados began painting the core of this newest attack. To Veris, it looked like the creature's limitless rage was tainting the attack and adding to its destructive potential. He knew he needed to think quickly or whatever mighty attack was about to come would effortlessly destroy him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the fishing rod once again, still tethered to the beast before him and he got an idea.

"I hope this works. Because if not I'm screwed." Veris worriedly thought as he summoned all his speed and raced towards the fishing pole, picking it up in his right hand and ran towards his favorite rock formation. He slid behind the rocks, grabbing his rucksack and tightly strapping his fishing rod between the straps. Then as hard he could, Veris threw the rucksack out over the lake and watched it splash into, then start rapidly sinking into the deep trenches of the lake beneath it. Scrambling back to his feet, Veris swiftly raced back towards the tree line, screaming a prayer in his head to Arceus that this ridiculous plan of his would work. He looked back at the Gyarados over his shoulder and saw the white and crimson sphere flashing ominously in his maw. The attack was coming, and he wasn't quite to safety yet.

A frenzied roar bellowed through Veris' soul as Gyarados leaned his towering body closer, and he fired a beam of pure malevolent rage out of his mouth. Time slowed down around him as Veris desperately reached for the trees still yards out of his reach. All Veris could do was pray, pray that by some divine miracle that he'd be able to reach safety in time. A flash of blue-tinted white light blinded his vision as the explosive force of Gyarados' attack shot him forward like a cannon. Veris's body flew helplessly through the air, before falling into the unforgiving rocky terrain, flipping and crashing against the gravel painfully and landing in a crumpled heap just before the trees he was trying so desperately to reach.

"Great job Veris. You're dead." He thought to himself as he tried to move his lifeless body. Blood was trickling down his forehead from a cut above his eye. His vision was cloudy, blurring red and black as his blood mixed with a growing darkness as his remaining strength faded from him. With what little energy he had left, Veris painfully turned his fading gaze towards his victorious foe. The last thing he was going to see in this life would be the piercing blood red stare of a Gyarados.

A startling jolt of electricity flowed through Veris' body, invigorating him as he saw the Gyarados keeled over, barely keeping its own head up off the ground above the shore and struggling to breathe. Beneath his mouth was the start of a deep cut into the earth that must have been from that devastating attack, but its path was nowhere near where Veris lay. He rolled over on his back, trying to sit up and followed the path with his eyes when another shock went through him. The beam's deep cut had suddenly taken an abrupt turn behind Veris just before the attack was about to hit him. A very unfortunate section of trees had taken the full brunt of the hellacious attack, obliterated into splinters of burnt chaos. One last spark, snapped Veris back to alertness as he looked his body over in absolute shock.

"I'm alive? I'm alive?! I'M ALIVE! I don't believe it, that stupid plan actually worked! Thank you Arceus!" Veris hysterically screamed as he examined his body closely. He'd planned for his rucksack, combined with the fishing rod that somehow was still tethered to Gyarados to act as an anchor and forcibly drop his head to dodge the attack, if only for a split second. Even, Veris doubted that his impulsive plan would work. But perhaps the divine saw fit to reward his crafty though suicidal plan with the gift of life and vitality as he suddenly realized that he could hardly feel pain in his body anymore. It was like his whole body had gone numb with electricity coursing through his veins. Beneath his tattered clothes, Veris saw what looked like the remnants of cuts on his chest and right arm, but not only did he feel no pain from them, it also looked like they had stopped bleeding as well. The same could be said of the cut on his forehead he'd noticed earlier as running his hand over his forehead only removed a layer of sweat and nothing else.

Veris shifted his weight to a knee as the most joyful of grins came to his face. He'd not only dodged death, but now was being granted a chance for revenge as the Gyarados looked exhausted as it barely held itself aloft above the lake's surface. Veris' Kukri lay right beside him, somehow still in one piece after all the abuse it'd taken today. Veris grabbed it with his left hand and stood up, hearing a faint humming in his ear. Confused he looked around, seeing nothing except the slouched Gyarados before him and the destruction he had caused. The humming intensified as he looked at his Kukri, and unless his eyes were deceiving him, Veris saw what looked like small arcs of blue colored lightning emanating from the machete in his hand. In fact his arms, legs and the rest of his body was also crackling in this same lightning like energy.

"What is this?" Veris asked mystified by the strange power that was flowing through his body. He clenched his hands together in awe as he continued seeing arcing energy surround his being. Was this power another of the divine's gifts bestowed upon him? But he had no time to dwell on the thought as a roar from Gyarados returned Veris' attention to it. The beast had sprung back to life and was thrashing itself back to alertness, the red glow around its body returning as well. His jaw slammed shut as he pulled his body back and Veris could hear the line on his fishing rod finally snap as the beast turned back to him with that furious scowl back on its face. Veris' own stare matched the Gyarados' expression as both opponents glared at each other with hatred in their eyes. Neither one of them moved an inch, with only the sound of a gentle breeze rolling across the land interrupting the stillness between them.

Veris made the first move, and with the swiftness of lightning raced towards the water's edge. He had no way to know for certain, but Veris felt like this dead sprint towards his the Gyarados was the fastest he'd ever run in his life. He reached the edge of the water in only a few seconds and swiftly jumped up towards the serpent, soon watching himself leap over the beast's head and continuing to climb higher, much to both his and his foe's astonishment. Once more, Gyarados spat out a spiraling column of water at the human above him, trying for the same result as before. But his attack missed as Veris tucked his body in, and fell with arrow like precision towards the serpents' back, flipping over and landing on his feet along the tough blue scales. Veris looked up as the Gyarados turned his neck, trying to find him but couldn't. While the serpent moved, Veris saw an opening in its defenses, an exposed area behind the neck of the beast between its two white fins.

"This is the end you bastard." Veris growled as he began running along the beast's back. He pulled his Kukri back towards his chest, aiming the tip of the blade towards this weak spot. Gyarados sensed Veris moving on its back and started thrashing its body about in an attempt to throw him off, but it wasn't going to be enough. Gripping the hilt of his Kukri tighter, Veris saw the electricity surrounding his blade intensify as he got closer to this weak spot. Time felt like it slowed down once again as he stood a step away, seeing exposed muscle beneath the scaly sheathe. Looking at his arm, and the lightning coated Kukri about to hit its target, Veris knew he was about to kill this monstrous opponent. It only felt appropriate to him, that a flashy looking attack like this deserved a name, and he could only think of one that fit the situation.

"Thunder Fang!" Veris cried out as he thrust the Kukri into the Gyarados' exposed muscle. The lightning sharpened blade effortlessly pierced into the tissue, discharging the electric energy into the Gyarados. The serpent's body twitched violently as the red aura surrounding it quickly faded amidst a painful sounding cry. Veris removed the blade, seeing the creature's blood gushing out of the wound that painted his steel blade a deep crimson color. He stabbed the beast a second time, sending more shocks through his body and widening the wound on his neck. Another cry of anguish, echoed from the panicked creature as it knew death was upon him. Helplessly it tried to throw Veris off his neck, but his strength was rapidly bleeding out of him and he could not hold his neck up anymore.

The Gyarados began to fall towards the gravel shores of Lake Valor. Veris kicked himself off the creature, leaping up above it and helping push the beast to the ground. It landed against the rocks with a heavy thud as a cloud of dust scattered around where it lay. The rest of Gyarados' body still in the lake splashed and thrashed wildly in a feeble attempt to escape. With lightning coating his Kukri once more, Veris fell from the sky like an actual thunderbolt and slashed the Kukri through the exposed neck of the creature. Blood gushed out of the massive cut, soaking Veris as he landed less than gracefully besides his bloodied and defeated opponent. The electric energy that had surrounded his body began receding as Veris stood up and dragged himself towards the still half open mouth of the beast. Looking up at the creature's eyes, Veris saw all the proof he needed to know he won. The previously red with rage eyes had dulled to a glazed grey as the creature gave up the last of its strength, dying on the beach of Lake Valor. Veris had killed the Gyarados.

"I did it… I actually fought and killed a Gyarados… Nobody back home is going to believe this." Veris thought as he stood there with his hands on his hips, shaking his head in disbelief. A round of quiet, amused laughter soon escalated into a hysterically loud, side-splitting laughter that sent him to his knees. "How in the hell am I still alive? I should be dead. I should look like those trees over there." Now crying with laughter, Veris looked over at the smoldering remains of the trees where Gyarados' energy beam hit earlier. Smoke was still spewing from the charred crater that used to be full of luscious green pine trees a few minutes ago. Only one tree was still standing in the impact, a dead but defiantly standing tree trunk with a jagged appearance. The way it looked reminded Veris of the strange energy that came to him around the same time, the lightning aura that re-energized him and let him kill the Gyarados.

"Seriously, what the hell was that stuff?" Veris looked over his hands again, clenching them together. He noticed that as he moved his body, the numbness he had experienced was being replaced with it pain. His body felt stiff, sore and heavy, but it wasn't an unbearable feeling. Veris looked out at the now calming lake and thought it looked so relaxing, so inviting. He figured he'd earned a little dip in the lake after the ordeal he'd just gone through. Slowly, Veris took off his boots, the light armor he was wearing, the belt that holstered his Kukri and finally his tunic and spread them all out over his favorite tiny alcove. Gently he lowered himself into the lake, sitting on a small ledge with the water going up to his chest.

"Oh yeah, that feels so good right now." Veris contently sighed as the chill of the lake water on his skin began letting the aches of his body float away. "What was I thinking about… oh yeah, that lightning thing. I don't know where that stuff came from but man am I grateful it did. I swear that while that was happening. Without it, I probably would have died, and certainly wouldn't have been able to kill that Gyarados." Veris looked over at his Kukri seeing it was still covered in Gyarados blood, dripping a puddle over the shore. The grip in his hand remained un-bloodied thanks to a circular notch at the very back end of the blade that dropped the blood away from the handle, but the rest was still tainted red. Veris placed the blade in the lake and swished it around a couple times to run the blood off its edge. Taking it back out of the water, it sparkled just as vividly as his brothers normally did.

"I wonder if Olin's hunt went well." Veris quietly wondered aloud. "Though I doubt he has a story even close to as good as mine is."

"Hey Veris!"

"Speaking of..." Veris thought to himself as he turned around seeing his brother waving with one hand and gripping a motionless and lightly bloodied Bibarel by the tail in the other. Veris half-waved at Olin, not wanting to get out of the lake. "Hey Olin, looks like you were successful."

"Of course I was. I'm just as good a hunter as you are." Olin said as he jogged over towards the rock formation.

"Are you now…" Veris smirked as he saw his brother's hat fall off his head and he stopped to pick it up. "Well you're definitely pretty good, but I wouldn't say you're as good as I am just yet. You are getting there though."

"Oh, then where's your catch today, master hunter Veris." Olin sneered down at his big brother. "I don't see any Magikarp or Goldeen lying around."

"S-Seriously? You really can't see anything?" Veris looked at his brother like he was an idiot. Granted he was an idiot, but how the hell do you not notice the giant corpse of a water dragon lying on the beach.

"And you were the one who said earlier _Oh; we have to get to the lake early today so we can catch a lot of fish_. _Quit wasting my time Olin so we can get moving._" Olin teased doing his best impression of Veris.

"I don't sound like that at all." Veris crossly looked back at his brother.

"And yet once we actually get here, it's me who goes out and manages to catch something. _You know, something we can actually eat._" Veris face-palmed, hearing another impersonation of himself.

"Olin… take a look over there. Tell me what you see." Veris lazily pointed towards the Gyarados' corpse with his thumb.

"Well, I see a bunch of burnt trees, not sure how you managed to pull that off but good job I guess. Uh, I see some weird mud marks on the ground and over there is the corpse of a Gyara-duhhhhhhh." Olin dropped the Bibarel in his hand as his train of thought was immediately derailed when he saw the Gyarados Veris had killed lying in a pool of its own blood. Veris stood out of the water and firmly placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, leaving a wet handprint on his olive tunic.

"That, little brother, is my catch for the day." Veris triumphantly laughed besides his brother, who was trying to pick his jaw off the ground.

"No way."

"I totally did." Veris proudly boasted with a dramatic sounding voice. "It was a hard fought battle, and he beat me up pretty badly. Heck, I almost died fighting this beast as he spat torrents of water, showers of blue fire and malevolent beams of death at me. But thanks to my agility, quick thinking and most importantly my skill with a blade, all of which are better than you by the way, I was able to emerge victorious and live to tell the tale."

"No I mean there is no way you killed that thing." Olin began, completely killing Veris' sense of pride in the process. "It probably just died on the beach from sickness or something and you're trying to take credit."

"What the… Olin, look at this." Veris pulled his partially dried, brown hair back revealing the cut above his right eye and pointing at it. "How do you explain this if I didn't fight this thing?"

"You slipped on the rocks and cut yourself." Veris rolled his eyes.

"Then how do you explain all of these muddy lines across the lakefront. Or this really deep cut in the Earth that we're standing next to?"

"You slipped more than once." Veris growled annoyed as his brother chuckled at his own joke. Olin fancied himself a jester of sorts, but Veris never thought he was that funny, especially when the jokes were aimed at his own expense.

"Okay then smartass, how do you explain this?" Veris stormed off and pulled back the scales around the Gyarados' neck, exposing the massive slash wounds Veris inflicted. "How do you explain these slash wounds? How do you explain the giant pool of blood this thing is lying in? How do you explain..."

"Relax brother; I'm just teasing you a bit." Olin laughed as he looked at his brother in awe. "I'm absolutely stunned you were able to catch this thing, let alone kill it."

"That's more like it." Veris proudly stated as he looked back at his catch. "It's a shame it's all going to waste since there's no way we'll be able to get it to the village before the meat spoils. But it'll be a good snack for the wild Pokémon around here. I bet they've never eaten Gyarados before."

"So how did you do it?" Olin curiously asked as he inspected the wounds himself.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Veris said putting his hands behind his head as he thought about the strange lightning power he gained in the fight.

"I think the slash marks make it pretty obvious."

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean…" Veris paused a bit wondering how best to explain what happened to Olin. He simply decided to tell him as best he could understand. "Okay this is going to sound strange, but during my fight with Gyarados here, some sort of power came over me, like lightning. Like my body was sparking off lightning, and so was my Kukri. And while the power was active, I was re-energized and felt faster and stronger than I've ever felt before. And when I attacked, I felt the lightning charge my blade and dealt massive damage to it. I can't really describe it but it was incredible. Like I felt like I could do anything and nobody could stop me, especially not this stupid snake." Veris kicked the Gyarados' corpse with his foot. The Gyarados twitched in response, startling both Olin and Veris who quickly fell backwards and crawled away.

"I thought you said you killed it!" Olin yelled with panic in his voice.

"I thought I did!" Veris sounded equally worried.

"Well then explain why it just moved."

"I don't know why it moved!" A disturbing retching noise came from the Gyarados. Both of them looked petrified as the beast's upper body squirmed before a disgusting pile of filth dribbled out of the dead creature's mouth. Olin gagged as he held back his own wretch. "I hope that means it really is dead for good now." Veris commented as Olin only nodded his head, unwilling to look at the pile of vomit. An unexpected sparkle of light came from the pile catching Veris' attention. Looking at it closely he saw it coming from an orange shaped chunk in the center of the pile. "Hey Olin, there's something sparkling in this thing's puke."

"Please don't make me look at it. I don't want to know what this thing eats." Veris walked closer to it, letting his curiosity get a hold of him.

"It kind of looks like a Magikarp head, but why would it be sparkling." Olin gagged again as his brother spoke. Veris reached out for it with his Kukri and stabbed the orange chunk, picking it up to examine it closer. "Well, that's a Magikarp head alright. But that doesn't explain the… is that a bit of string?"

"What?" Olin now looked back at Veris as he turned around throwing the head off the blade and on the ground. Now both brothers were looking at the disfigured fish head. It might have been covered in gunk, but at least separated from the rest of the Gyarados' stomach contents, Olin could better handle the sight.

"See, that's definitely string of some sort." Veris held it up with his fingers as both their eyes followed it into the Magikarp's closed mouth. Veris then saw the sparkle by the side of the fish's mouth and started laughing. "I don't believe it…"

"Believe what?" Olin asked as Veris forced the fish head open and pulled out a fishing hook, his fishing hook.

"It's my fishing hook! I must have hooked this poor bastard and then while I tried reeling it in Gyarados decided to make him lunch. And then after I started fighting back, he charged towards the shore and attacked me. It all makes sense now! Oh Arceus that's hilarious!"

"I think Gyarados bit off a bit more than he could chew, wouldn't you say so brother? Huh?" Olin lightly prodded Veris' ribs with his elbow a couple times.

"Ugh, Olin that joke was in poor taste and you know it." Veris snickered as walked back to his clothes and started redressing himself.

"I thought it was clever." Olin pouted watching Veris put his tunic on.

"What do you think Olin, should we head back home? I don't have much strength left after my battle, and I had to sacrifice both my fishing rod and my pack to fight Gyarados. I'm not going to be able to keep hunting without either of those."

"I guess we can call it a day." Olin grinned as he picked up the Bibarel he'd caught. "But that means you're holding my pack. This guy is a bit heavier than I thought."

"That means more fat, which means he'll taste better. Good catch Olin."

"Thanks brother… wait you lost your pack?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you how when I catch up." Veris waved Olin in the direction of the forest path they'd taken as he walked over to the rocks where his brother's rucksack was and shouldered it. He started jogging to catch up to Olin but stopped when he got besides the slain Gyarados lying on the lakefront. Looking one last time at his defeated foe, Veris shook his head in disbelief that he'd somehow managed to kill the monster lying right in front of him. With a smile on his face, Veris jogged back to Olin and caught up with him.

As they walked down the pathway they took to the lake, Veris told Olin once again about his fight with the Gyarados in as vivid detail as he could remember. He couldn't believe his brother's explanation for why he lost the pole and the pack, punching his shoulder somewhat playfully but partially in a critical way. Sure it worked out for the best, but Olin wasn't happy that his brother decided to do something as idiotic as fight a Gyarados with a machete. Veris only laughed as they continued to pass through the forest.

But as his laughing echoed off the nearby branches, he realized just how uncomfortably still the atmosphere of the forest was. The usual background chatter of the wild Pokémon living around the lake was not present. It was an eerie feeling not hearing the Starly and Staravia living in the trees chirping amongst themselves, or the Krickitune singing their assorted songs. Veris didn't say anything, but he thought it had to have been from all the roaring Gyarados had made in their fight. Still, it had been a while since the roaring stopped. Shouldn't the noise have come back by now? As they exited the branched path off the main route they'd taken to the lake, Olin held his arm out and stopped his brother, interrupting his thoughts about the silent forest.

"Hey, what was that for?" Veris asked annoyed they had just abruptly stopped.

"Look brother, there's an Absol on the trail ahead." Olin whispered pointing ahead of them.

"Really?" Veris looked ahead himself, scanning the road and sure enough right in front of them was an Absol. The white furred Pokémon stood at the top of a hill from which you could see Arrowroot off in the distance. It stood motionless, staring ominously at the two humans with its intense red eyes. Unlike Gyarados, the Absol showed a much softer, although serious expression in its dark blue colored face. "Well I'll be damned, it is an Absol."

"What do you think its doing?"

"I'm not sure. It's pretty rare to see an Absol around here; they don't normally come up this far north." Veris and Olin both took a cautious set of steps closer towards the wild Pokémon that still remained motionless. It just continued to watch the brother as they gradually made their way closer to it. Veris couldn't take his eyes off the Absol. It looked so majestic with its fur gently rustling in the light wind, but at the same time intimidating with how poised for an attack it looked. He instinctively grabbed for the hilt of his Kukri and unsheathed it. As he did, the Pokémon's eyes glowed a light blue, freezing him in place and making him drop his machete.

"You must leave this place. A cloud of blood-smoke rises on the horizon." A light, wispy voice rang in Veris' head. He panicked, spinning around in place trying to find where it could have come from.

"Who said that!? Where are you?"

"Veris, what's wrong?" Olin looked suspiciously back at his brother who had taken up a fighting stance, still pivoting around on his feet.

"What do you mean blood-smoke? Show yourself dammit!"

"Veris calm down, what are you talking about?"

"You mean you didn't hear that?" Veris looked shocked at his brother. He'd heard that voice clear as day. How could Olin not have heard it when he was right there with him?

"Hear what, nobody said anything. You just started yelling randomly for no reason."

"But I heard a voice! Someone spoke to me saying it wasn't safe around here, and something about blood-smoke."

"What is blood-smoke?"

"How should I know? I'm just telling you what I heard." Olin folded his arms as he thought for a moment, looking only at his brother's panicked face as a worried frown came over his own.

"I think you probably just need some rest Veris. That fight with Gyarados must have taken a lot out of you. Maybe it's because of that lightning shroud you said helped you in your fight. It might have caused you to become fatigued and now you're hearing things because of how tired you are."

"Yeah… Yeah I think you might be right. I'm probably just tired." Veris agreed placing his hand on his forehead.

"Do you need me to help you back to town?"

"No, I'll be fine. Let's try to take it easy if we can though."

"If you say so brother." Olin turned around and looked back towards the Absol, only it wasn't on the top of the hill anymore. "Hey, where did the Absol go?" Veris looked up as well, also seeing it wasn't there.

"I must have scared it off with my yelling." Veris sighed, slightly upset that the Absol had left. "Oh well, let's get moving." The two brothers hiked their way up the top of the hill Absol was standing on. Both of them looked for the Pokémon on the side of the trail but couldn't find it.

"Hey, do you smell something Veris?" Veris took a few deep sniffing inhales like his brother did. He smelled smoke, and his eyes sprang wide as he remembered the words he heard earlier.

"Blood-smoke." Veris whispered as he raced his way up the top of the hill with Olin quickly following him. Reaching the top of the hill Veris stopped, paralyzed of fear from what he saw. A billowing cloud of smoke was rising in the same direction of Arrowroot. Olin had the same reaction; knocking into Veris and pushing him forward a step.

"Veris… please tell me that's not what I think it is." Fear coated Olin's words as he spoke, shifting his gaze from the rising smoke cloud to his bother. "Veris please."

"Blood-smoke rises on the horizon…" Veris repeated the words he'd heard earlier.

"Veris please! I need you to tell me!" Tears were already forming in Olin's eyes, easily telling Veris just how scared he was. "Tell me everything is going to be okay." Veris looked back down at the cloud of rising gray smoke that was now starting to block out the now setting sun. From this distance it looked like it might just be a natural brushfire outside of town. But the words the voice told him worried him that much more.

"It's going to be fine Olin, we're probably just overreacting." Veris spoke reassuringly to both his brother and himself. "It's probably just a brushfire or something like that. Our home is fine; mom is going to be okay. Everything will be fine, I promise."

"Okay... okay, everything will be fine." Olin breathed out a sigh of relief, but Veris still wasn't convinced himself.

"Let's get going Olin." Veris said placing a firm hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Yeah, let's go." Olin nodded, turning around and started jogging down the trail that led downhill towards the village. Veris watched his brother and put a spring in his step to join him.

"I see my warning went unheeded." The same wispy voice sounded in Veris' mind once again. He turned around, seeing the Absol from before standing behind him only a few feet away, its eyes having returned to its previous red color. Startled, Veris quickly took two steps back and reached for his Kukri only to find it wasn't in his sheath. It was in the Absol's mouth.

"How did you get my…"

"You dropped it over there." The voice sounded again as the Absol pointed back down the hill he'd just climbed with the sickle shaped horn on its head. Veris stood there astonished as he realized who had been speaking to him this whole time.

"You can talk? You're the voice I heard?"

"I'm just as surprised you can hear me speak." The Absol nodded its head. "But if you can hear me then you need to listen to me. You must leave this place. If you continue on that path, only the burning black cloud of death awaits you." A new worried frown came over Veris' face as he looked from the talking Pokémon towards the smoke cloud and his brother running downhill.

"I can't do that. I have to know for certain that my home is okay."

"Did you not hear me? I said death and the fires of hell await you if you head towards that village." The Absol's voice sounded angrier as its eyes narrowed and it lowered its body to a more intimidating stance.

"Be that as it may, I still have to go."

"I'm trying to save you human! If you go there you will surely die."

"I've already dodged death once today Absol, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to die today if I tried to." Veris half smiled as the Absol looked at him astonished. How could this human be so stubborn and why would he actively want to head towards danger like this?

"I... I don't understand. How are you not listening to me if you can hear me so clearly?"

"I don't understand either." Veris quietly laughed as he saw his brother continuing to head downhill at a frenzied pace. "But I don't have the luxury of time to explain why I have to go there Absol. All I can say is that my entire life lies in that village. All my family, my friends, and every single memory I've made is rooted in that village." He paused a moment looking back at the Absol, seeing it take a more relaxed stance.

"It's my home. And if my home is in danger then I have to protect it from harm. I can't really explain it, but it's just something I have to do." As he spoke, the Absol thought it saw what looked like a blue lightning bolt appear in the center of the human's right eye. Something about this human was different compared to the other ones it had met. This human had a sense of pride, loyalty and determination that overshadowed any of the others it had met previously. Absol let out an amused sounding grunt as it looked up at Veris with the making of a smile on its face.

"You're either incredibly brave, or incredibly foolish, human." The Absol walked up to Veris and gently placed his Kukri on the ground in front of him. "I suppose if you are going to ignore my warning, you should have your weapon back. May I ask what your name is, foolishly brave human?"

"It's Veris. My name is Veris." Veris bent down to a knee and picked up his Kukri, re-sheathing it on his back. Once it was secured again, Veris reached out and placed his hand on the top of the Absol's head. "Thanks for returning my blade Absol."

"May the divine lord Arceus watch over and protect you Veris." Both Veris and the Absol nodded at each other before Veris turned around and started racing downhill after his brother.

"Dammit Veris, hurry up! We need to get going!" Olin yelled back over his shoulder seeing how far behind his brother was. A momentary smile found itself on Veris' face realizing he was the one who was late this time. But it faded just as quickly as Veris and his brother charged ahead towards the fire burning off in the distance.

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><p><strong>AN: And there you go, first chapter in the books. I'm excited you guys... now that's the third time I've said that but it is true. So if you're wondering about updates, well I can't really say much yet. This is the first time I'm managing two active stories so I don't know how much of an impact it's going to have on me as a writer. We'll both just have to wait and see won't we reader. Anywho, this is DrPhill26 signing out, hoping you enjoyed yourself and that I might get to see you again next time.**


	2. Clouds of Smoke and Blood

**A/N: Welcome back everyone, I know it's been a while since I gave you guys anything to enjoy with this story...**

**Veris: It's been almost two months Phil. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be running for two months straight?**

**DrPhill26: Uh... well no, I don't.**

**Veris: Well it's not fun. It's exhausting. My legs are killing me right now.**

**DrPhill26: Well sorry about that. But I haven't been just sitting on my butt of late, nor have I forgotten about this story. Even though a lot of my focus of late has been with Evolution, I've still been taking my time world building behind the scenes of this story and planning out future chapters. I've got all the major events mapped out for what could end up being the next five chapters depending on how well the future writing goes.**

**Veris: Impressive, sounds like you've got a plan. I'm okay with that.**

**DrPhill26: But today we can put world building on hold and give you an actual chapter today. Enjoy and have fun guys.**

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><p>Running stride for stride with each other, both Veris and Olin continued racing towards Arrowroot Village as the sun above them began to be choked out by smoke. They'd been on the trail back to their home from Lake Valor for what felt like ages already, and each second they weren't deepened the worry in their hearts. There was no way for them to know what was happening in Arrowroot until they got there. In the back of his mind, Veris was hoping, praying desperately to Arceus and anyone else that would listen that nothing bad was happening to Arrowroot, and that both he and Olin were overreacting. But the intensity with which the smoke billowed up behind the trees and hills that shielded their view of Arrowroot made him think otherwise.<p>

He looked over at his brother on his right, seeing the most fearful expression he'd ever seen on his face. The color had drained out of Olin's face leaving him looking like a husk of his normal cheery self. He didn't want to admit it to himself, but Veris didn't doubt he had the same look on his own face. Wiping sweat and a stray tear out of his eyes Veris pressed onward, knowing he just needed to run through one last patch of trees and over one final hill before they'd see for themselves just what lie in wait for them.

Heading into the tree cover, the Absol's words from earlier played yet again in Veris' head. They'd been the only thing on his mind since speaking with the Pokémon a moment ago. The ominous blood-smoke cloud that it had warned him about was only continuing to intensify and thicken the closer Veris and his brother got to it. The Absol spoke of fire, death and despair, a despair that lay just beyond this last hill. With another burst of strength, Veris closed his eyes as he sprinted up the path to the top of this hill. Part of him thought that if he didn't open his eyes again, some childish wish would make it so that his home wasn't going to be on fire. But the wind shifted as soon as Veris reached the top of the hill, and a burning scent broke through his defense, forcing his eyes open to confirm exactly what he feared the most. His home village was aflame.

As the fire burned untamed and unhindered before him, Veris froze before the open gates to the main road of the village. Homes were burning and his neighbors were running and screaming for their lives. But what sparked this nightmarish hellfire in the first place? Veris had no time to think on the matter as Olin quickly ran up behind him, unable to stop himself in time as the two brothers collided into each other and fell to the dirt path beneath them.

"Ow… dammit that hurt." Veris said holding his left wrist limply in his hand. He squeezed his hand together in a fist, feeling a dull pain in the base of his arm.

"What are you doing standing around Veris?" Olin complained as he stood up and dusted himself off. "We need to hurry back and find out if our home is okay!"

"You may be right Olin, but we shouldn't just charge into danger like this without some sort of plan."

"Are you kidding Veris? We don't have time to form a plan. Do you not see that the village is burning to the ground before our eyes?"

"That's exactly the reason we need a plan Olin!" Veris yelled back as he finally stood up off the dirt, getting in his brother's face. "If we just foolishly rush ahead without thinking, then we might end up getting hurt or worse. We need to think about this calmly!"

"Calmly? Look around you Veris. There's fire everywhere, homes are being destroyed, people are screaming for help and may be dead already, and you want me to be calm?! There's no way in hell I can stay calm in a time like this!"

"Hey, you two! What are you doing standing around arguing?" An echoing voice boomed from the main pathway as Veris and Olin turned to face its source. One of the town's guardsmen, specifically a member of the Royal Family's personal guard was running towards the two brothers. Veris could tell he was of the Royal Guard from the grass green colored tunic accented with the Royal Family's crest of silver flowers surrounding an inverted golden fleur-de-lis in the center of the tunic, instead of the Arrowroot's crest of a large oak tree fashioned like a bow and arrow. Another give away was the silver accent stripes around the shoulders and waist and the weapon he was wielding, a halberd instead of the standard curved saber.

"You two need to head to the forest for safety!" The guard yelled, sounding slightly out of breath as he finally stood next to the Veris and Olin.

"Is our home okay?" Olin quickly asked standing before the guard. "What about our mom? Have you seen her?"

"Olin calm down." Veris stood behind his brother, placing his arms beneath his brother's shoulders and wrapping them around his arms, grabbing at his neck and pulling Olin away from the guard. "I've told you already, mom and our home are both fine."

"Liar!" Olin screamed as he thrashed about in Veris' arms. "You said that back at the lake when we didn't know anything. Now we're here and there's fire everywhere and people are screaming. Nothing about this is fine! Now let go of me so I can go find mom!"

"The only one screaming here is you Olin! I'm telling you we need a plan before we do anything. We still don't know what caused this fire in the first place."

"You mean the two of you were outside the village until a moment ago?" The guard asked suspiciously as he lowered his polearm to a more battle ready stance. "Who are you two and where are you from?"

"Veris and Olin Blackthorn." Veris replied as he dragged his brother and himself another step away from the guard. He didn't like the guard taking a more threatening position, especially in a time of crisis like this. The guard's added intimidation was completely unnecessary given just how high his nerves were on edge seeing fire in the shops around his home. "We live on the far side of the village past the tall oak tree over in the center of town."

"Oh, the brothers Blackthorn huh. I've heard about the two of you. Perfect, I could use the help of a couple huntsmen like you. Quickly, come with me." The guard waved his hand to invite Veris and Olin to follow him as he turned around and began his way back down the dirt path into Arrowroot.

"We're not going anywhere until we find out what the hell is going on!" The guard turned back around, clearly frustrated with Veris' reluctance to go with him.

"What is happening to our home? Why is the village burning?" Olin asked having finally stopped fighting against his brother's restraint. The guard sighed, running a hand through his short black hair before he spoke.

"Are you familiar with the bandit group calling themselves Magma Storm?"

"I am." Veris nodded as he loosened his grip on his brother. "But I thought they were based more to the east of here, over by Daybreak Vale."

"They are. But a week ago we received a message from their leader demanding ransom money in exchange for them not attacking the village. Naturally we ignored their demands which-"

"So it's your fault our home is being destroyed!" Olin quickly ran towards the guard with his fists raised high. He swung a wildly with his right, but the guard dodged his punch and swiftly swept his legs out from under him making him crash face first into the dirt road. With little wasted motion he swung the polearm around his body, stepped heavily in the center of Olin's back and aimed the tip of his blade at his neck.

"You bastard!" Veris unsheathed his Kukri; preparing to leap into action should he need to. "Get the hell off him before I gut you like a Magikarp."

"Threatening the royal guard? Big mistake punk." The guard turned around and looked at Veris crossly. "You realize standing against the guards is akin to threatening the Royal Family. I could have you arrested for that." Veris only clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Some guardsman you are, threatening the citizens of the village he's sworn to protect, during a time of crisis no less. You're a pathetic excuse of a guard." The guard let out an amused cackling laugh in response.

"As a member of the distinguished Mentha Family guard, my only concern is the welfare of the Royal Family. I could honestly care less about what the vermin who live in the town, like yourself and this little maggot here think of me." The guard pushed the sole of his foot deeper into Olin's back, making him squirm and cry out in pain. Veris' angry scowl deepened as he ground his teeth together tightly as he further slipped into an aggressive and more confrontational stance with the guard. But in looking at his brother's pained face and seeing the village burning behind the both of them, Veris realized he didn't have the time to be arguing with this asshole, no matter how much he deserved it. Reluctantly, Veris sheathed his Kukri behind his back and took a composing breath.

"What do you need from us?" Veris growled, thickly lacing his words with a venomous hatred for the guard's brutish antics.

"Finally willing to listen are we?" The guard laughed as he raised his polearm away from Olin and held it beside him. "The regular guard is too preoccupied with protecting the villagers than with whom they should be to send us reinforcements at the mansion. Since you two aren't busy evacuating, we could use your assistance in protecting the mansion from more bandits."

"You've got to be kidding! We don't have time to help you, we need-"

"Olin!" Veris interrupted his brother's attempts at protest with a sharp yell before readdressing the guard. "I'll help you."

"Brother, what are you saying? We have to find mom!"

"I said that _I'll_ help him Olin, not that _we'd_ help him." Veris looked at Olin sympathetically. "I want you to go ahead, find our mom and make sure she's okay. I assume that's fine with you… sir." The guard smiled arrogantly as Veris finally relented to his demand for help.

"Much better. The Mentha Family thanks you in advance for your service." Finally the guard stood off Olin, but not before kicking him in the side, making the unsuspecting boy gasp and cough in withered pain. The guard jogged back towards the town in the direction of the Mentha Family mansion while Veris knelt down besides his brother.

"Are you okay Olin?"

"I think so. I should be fine when I regain my breath." Olin coughed out his response sounding winded.

"I'll try to get one in on him for you okay. That son of a bitch deserves one right between the eyes."

"Don't focus on that right now Veris. Just do whatever the guard is making you do and then come back to our home as soon as you can. I'll meet you there."

"Right, I'll be back soon, I promise." Veris and his brother clasped hands tightly as Veris helped his younger brother back to his feet then patted him on the shoulder twice before turning running off to catch up to the guard.

"Hey Veris!" Veris stopped once more to look at his brother. "Be safe brother."

"You too Olin, be safe." Veris turned back towards the guard and jogged off, quickly falling in stride with the guard.

With the guard leading the way, Veris followed the guard as the two of them made their way through the burning rubble of Arrowroot. They passed what used to be shops and homes where Veris would regularly hear pleasant conversation or innocent laughter from children. But now the buildings were piles of burning ash and straw, and the only sounds he could hear the footsteps of buildings turning to ash and their own footsteps running through town. He looked up at the guard, the slightest beginnings of a scowl showing on his face, his stare growing heavier and more vacant as they ran past yet another burnt building and turned towards the mansion. Maybe the guard had a shred of a decent human being in him at all.

Veris saw the guard had slowed his pace slightly as the Royal Family's mansion came into view faring no better than the rest of the village. Although still standing, the once pristine building was a hollowed shell of its former glory. Small fires burned in the grass and trees lining the road to the front door. Many of the windows had shattered with shards lying in bushes beside the mansion. The flawless stone and brick had chipped, cracked and in some places collapsed giving a decayed look to the home.

"I'll get them back for this." Veris heard the guard growl menacingly as he came to a stop by the fountain that lay in a pile of rubble, the water squirting meagerly though the marble rock. "The first one of these scum that I see, I'll mount his head on my lance."

"You could have avoided this you know." Veris replied unsympathetically as he drew his Kukri. "If you'd just given into Magma Storm's demand, none of this would have happened."

"Save your breath runt." The guard glared back over his shoulder, a look of annoyance in his eyes. "We had to make a decision that best preserved the interests of the Mentha Family. You lowlifes wouldn't understand." Veris' eyes narrowed and his heart began to race as a deep anger swelled up inside him. How could someone who was supposed to protect the city be such an asshole? Veris felt his arm twitching from anger at the arrogance of the guard's words as they slithered off his tongue. The smugness with which he talked down to him made his face look so damn punchable, being just outside his arm's reach. All it would take from him is one step forward and there'd be blood trickling out of his nose. But he knew better than to get into another argument with him now. The less time he spent with him, the faster he could get back to Olin and make sure he and his mom were safe from harm.

"Fine." Veris relaxed from the confrontational stance he'd suddenly found himself in, lowering his arms back to his sides. "What are we looking for?" The guard just looked at him, thinking about something before he finally spoke.

"More people from Magma Storm. We find one of them, capture him, rough him up a bit and get him to tell us where their base is so we can finally rid the world of those bastards once and for all."

"We? You expect me to go along with that?"

"I have no intention of dragging you along for that. You're only here to help me find someone to capture. Keep your eyes sharp." The guard turned back around and began walking towards the front door which Veris just noticed had a large crack in its impressive frame. "You coming or what?"

"Seriously? You think we're going to find Magma Storm in the mansion?" Veris shrugged his shoulders as he caught up to the guard. "What makes you think any one of them will be in here?"

"We didn't pay them their ransom, so they've probably sent some of their men here to loot the mansion." The guard replied as he grasped the doorknob and pulled. Unexpectedly the handle snapped off in his grip causing him to stumble back a step. Silently, a smile crept to Veris' face seeing the guard become frustrated. But the moment was a short one as the guard swiftly kicked the door with his heel and it burst inward, falling into the open hall.

Veris had never been inside the Mentha estate before; only rich diplomats ever set foot on the property. It went without saying that a poor huntsman such as himself would never normally get to see what used to be pristine displays of wealth that lined the walls of this once proud home. Before him stood a grandiose staircase that led up to a second floor; oak steps covered in a saffron carpet that was unevenly kicked up across some of the steps. Luxurious pictures of various landscapes and mountain ranges hung slightly askew along the side of the walls, with a few places empty that looked like they housed pictures before the attack on Arrowroot. He took a few steps inside, seeing a shadow move across the floor. He looked up seeing an expensive chandelier suspended in a glass box above him by a lengthy golden chain, rocking lightly back and forth from the vaulted ceiling.

"You check the second floor. I'll check this floor and we'll hit the third floor together." The guard brushed past Veris and walked to a room adjacent the hall. Veris nodded as he climbed the steps to the second story. His trusty Kukri was drawn and at the ready in his left hand as he cautiously went up the steps. As much as he doubted that any of the Magma Storm bandits would still be in the mansion, you could never be too careful on a hunt; especially when your prey is as strong as you. At the top of the steps Veris scanned the hallways he saw. There were four of them, two extensions of the small awning he was standing on at the top of the stairs off to his left and right and two more that went deeper into the house that intersected this path. Veris decided to head left, following the pathway past the deeper hallway and into one of the extensions.

There was only one door on the left side of the hallway Veris went down at the very front of the hallway intersection. Cautiously he looked over both shoulders making sure nobody was watching him as he grasped the brass handle in his hand. As he slowly lifted the handle up, he raised his Kukri to his neck just as silently, ready to stab an unfortunate soul on the other side of the door. After briefly preparing himself, Veris swiftly threw the door open and jumped inside to find an empty bedroom.

His guard relaxed as he took more steps towards the inviting bed. The sheets were slightly amiss showing recent use but aside from that they looked relaxing. Veris turned his attention towards a dresser drawer set in the corner by the bed. It was black with a gilded pattern of leaves painted across each drawer. Veris had to admit it looked nice, but the design wasn't what caught his eye. It was a glass display box sitting on top of it that held a series of rings on a prosthetic hand mold. Each ring was golden in color with a simple design to it and adorned with a jewel on top of it. One was ruby, another sapphire, and a third was an emerald, but the last one captured Veris' attention, seeming to call out to him. This ring was more intricately designed, golden in color like the others, but had a weaving copper helix pattern embedded in the center, dividing the ring in half as it encircled the gemstone at the top. This stone was also slightly larger than the others, and pearlescent with its mostly purple and blue hues.

For some reason unknown to him, Veris wanted this ring, and as he placed his hand on the case the rings were modeled in, he found the case unlocked. The fact that this case was unlocked and still untouched came as a great surprise to Veris. He would have thought that if Magma Storm bandits had been looting the mansion like the guard suspected they'd have taken everything on sight. So how did these rings get ignored by them? But Veris didn't feel like ignoring them, and part of him wanted to get back at that guard for being such an ass earlier. Besides, would the Mentha Family really notice that one ring was missing from their collection, let alone be able to find out Veris took it amidst the burning chaos?

Quickly Veris opened the case and grabbed the ring, looking at it a bit closer and placing it on the pinky of his left hand. There was a faint chill from the ring on his finger, but the ring fit surprisingly well and was quite relaxing to look at as the purples and blues scattered in the window's light. The look outside though reminded him he had a job to do, so Veris turned around and exited the room with his new treasure.

The room he just exited was the only one in the hallway on this side so Veris turned down the hallway to his left and went deeper into the house. He checked the doors on his left like he had the first, but none of the rooms held anything of interest. He passed a washroom, another bedroom that lacked any rings to snatch, and what looked like a storage room of some kind that was equally unappealing. Veris was starting to get frustrated and began considering just leaving the guard. If it weren't for checking the third floor together there was no reason for him to even be here. As he stood in the hall debating if he should leave, he suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps and a sound of something breaking.

"I've got you now! You can't escape from me!" The guard's booming voice echoed through the home and Veris ran to the top of the stairs.

"What's happening?" He shouted back leaning over the guard rail. "Did you find someone?"

"Hey! Get back here you bastard!" The guard's voice sounded a second time with another crash of something. The accompanying sound of footsteps seemed to be fainter, leading away from Veris. He turned around and ran down the hallway leading towards the back of the home. He burst through a door leading onto a balcony overlooking the back courtyard of the house and he quickly saw a green blob running in the direction of a clearing of trees in the back. That had to be the guard chasing after one of the raiders responsible for the burning village. An enraged scowl quickly came to Veris' face as he leapt off the guardrail without hesitation, falling to the patio below. His momentum carried him to a roll on impact that Veris sprang up from and soon was chasing after the guard himself, his weapon set for battle. The guard made his way to the tree canopy behind the house as Veris started closing the gap between them. It didn't take him much longer to reach the canopy himself and catch up to the guard.

"Hey, what's going on?" Veris asked now running alongside the guard.

"Found one of those bandits in a room on the first floor." The guard began, already sounding slightly winded. "He snuck past me, bolted for the trees here. We need to catch him."

"Why? I mean I get that you want to interrogate him, but there's got to be more around here than just him."

"I'm not about to let an opportunity like this slip through my fingers. That and the son of a bitch blindsided me. I'll get him back twice as hard." A loud shriek came from further in the forest in the direction of the bandit they were chasing. "Princess!"

"Princess?" Veris looked ahead and saw only more trees and rocks. "You mean Princess Cervina?"

"That's right." The guard growled clenching his halberd tighter. "In the unlikely event that the mansion was ever attacked, our plan was for the Mentha Family to escape through these forest trails. I hate to admit it but I think the Royal Family has been spotted in their escape. We need to hurry." Veris was surprised. This guy really did seem to care about something other than his position as a guard. But he knew the guard was already tired; there'd be no way he could catch them in his state.

"I'll go ahead. You worry about keeping up with me." Veris grinned as he pushed himself harder and began racing ahead of the guard who had no response.

Not long after running ahead of the guard, Veris found a small rocky creek that broke up the perpetual tree cover of the surrounding forest. The trail he was running on branched with the creek going both to his left and right. His instinct was telling him to go right, so Veris followed the trail up a small hill and past a series of fallen logs. As he reached the top of the hill he heard yet another scream coming from the direction he was going and looked down to see its source at the base of the hill.

Three people and two Pokémon were involved in some sort of struggle. One of the humans, a man wearing brownish red clothing with a swirling flame pattern on the back of his shirt was holding a woman wearing a tattered green and white dress threateningly close to his side with the blade of a curved saber to the side of her neck. A black canine Pokémon stood before them, breathing fire towards what looked like a moving red, green and blue flower as another man with a mostly black attire braced himself from the flames headed his way.

"Are you okay Fiore?" The black clothed man asked the flower as it struggled to stand. It looked back at the man before pushing itself back up with the flowers around its hands. "Good, we need to work together to rescue Princess Cervina. Let's try Magical Leaf." The tiny flower pointed the red and purple blooms of its arms towards the canine, which began to glow bright green before a flurry of crescent shaped wisps shot out towards its foe.

"Pathetic, Houndour use Ember." The canine opened its mouth and shot a storm of small fireballs from its maw, reminding Veris of the sea serpent he'd fought earlier in the day. The flying fire collided with the green leaf like wisps, burning them on contact and arcing past the leaves towards the flower. The flower was knocked back by the force of the attack as tiny fiery pellets crashed all around it.

"Fiore no!" A feminine voice cried out that had to have come from the woman being restrained by the man. She started thrashing against the man's grip, reaching out towards the flower desperately hoping for some help.

"Oh no you don't." The man restraining the woman cackled as he readjusted his grip and tackled the woman to the ground, placing his knee on her back to prevent her from moving.

"Princess Cervina!" The second man cried out as he watched powerlessly as the brown clad man harmed her. "You monster, unhand her this instant!"

"I don't take orders from you. Houndour use Bite!" The canine ran towards the flower, biting on the flower's red bloom resulting in a sharp cry of pain.

"Looks like I found them alright…" Veris thought to himself still observing the situation. The woman being held was definitely the princess, and she was likely being held by a Magma Storm bandit. That other person with her must have been an escort of some kind. But why weren't there any guards keeping an eye on her? Did these two get separated from them? These thoughts swirled in Veris' head as he heard the guard's heavy footsteps begin to catch up behind him. Veris turned around and frantically waved his arms about before crossing them over his body and silently telling him to be quiet. The guard slowed down and crouched by Veris' side.

"What's going on, did you find them?" The guard whispered beneath his heavy breath.

"I did. The princess is at the base of the hill. She's being held captive by a guy who might be that grunt you ran into from earlier."

"Then what are you waiting for? Let's go rescue her!"

"Wait!" Veris grabbed the guard's shoulder and shushed him a second time. "There's two Pokémon fighting down there as well. A Houndour and some flower Pokémon I don't recognize."

"That's probably the princess' Roselia. And if she's fighting a Houndour, then we need to help her now."

"Exactly, so I've got a plan, but I need your help." The guard raised his eyebrow suspiciously at Veris, but he said nothing so Veris continued. "Let me attack from the cover of the brush. I'm a huntsman; I know how to minimize my presence in the woods and when I'm around Pokémon. If you go ahead, both the bandit and his Houndour will be focused on you, allowing me to sneak up undetected and attack the guy from behind."

"Why not just charge him together. There's only two of them and four of us counting the servant down there and the Roselia."

"Take a good look." Veris and the guard looked over the crest of the hill seeing both the Pokémon and humans downhill hadn't changed their position any.

"Fiore, now that he's closer, use Stun Spore!"

"Another Ember Houndour!" The Houndour let go of the Roselia's red bloom only to spit more fire down on its purple bloom that was pointed towards it. The defenseless flower cried out in pain again as did the Princess who was still trapped beneath the guard.

"I don't think the Roselia will be able to help us." Veris shook his head as the guard looked back at him. "It's been beaten up pretty bad by that Houndour. Plus there might be more bandits nearby. If that guy sees more than one person coming, he might call for backup and then we're all in trouble. But, if he thinks there's only one person coming, we can lure him into a false sense of security and take advantage of it." The guard and Veris both stayed silent a moment longer before the guard cracked a smile.

"Not a bad plan kid. You might be guard material after all." Veris and the guard nodded silently at each other confirming the plan of action.

"Be careful of that Houndour's fire attacks." Veris whispered as he crept towards the nearby brush.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm a member of the Mentha Family guard. A little puppy like that is no challenge at all." The guard stood back up and ran over the hill's crest, beginning the plan of attack. "Princess Cervina! Are you alright?"

"Oh thank Arceus it's a guard! Help us please!" The second man shouted as he saw the guard make his way down the hill.

"What the… what is a guard doing here? Houndour, we've got company, take care of him!" The canine Pokémon looked up from its victim and at the charging guard with his weapon lowered and ready to fight. He stood off the wounded Roselia and growled menacingly towards the charging human. Veris could see small flames burning inside the canine's mouth, adding to his intimidating stance.

"Ember once more!" Another volley of flames shot up the hill towards the guard. From his position, Veris could see the edge of the guard's arrogant smirk as he dodged the fiery volley of ash with a jump to his side and lowered his halberd to a battle ready stance. Despite his size, he moved swiftly and closed the gap to the Fire breathing Pokémon, quickly swinging the blade low towards the dog's legs. Houndour jumped back, dodging the tip of the spear and ducking a second, spinning slash of the guard's.

"Wow, I guess he's in the Royal Guard for a reason." Veris thought as he more hurriedly crept through the brush beside the trail. He watched the guard's deadly dance, twirling the bladed lance around his body with expert ability and never halting the flow of his attacks. Houndour was barely able to keep up with the furious flashes of silver that flew by his side, above his head and below his leaping paws in what looked like he was only delaying the inevitable. Both the dog and the grunt commanding him had a scowl on their faces as the guard swung from above crashing the bladed tip in the ground where Houndour had stood only a moment earlier.

"Houndour, trace his scent." The dog looked back at the grunt, curtly nodding at him as he continued dodging the swinging steel. He took a large leap back this time, finally creating some distance between the guard and himself before lowering himself prone to the ground. Veris saw the dog take a deep inhale from his position, shaking his head for a moment after the deep breath. The guard saw an opening; he lunged forward with a heavy thrust towards the dog's position.

"Now use Smog!" Yet again, Houndour dodged the tip of the lance as by jumping back and landing on all fours. As he did, his mouth opened and a thick black fog came from his mouth that soon swallowed up the guard from sight.

"What the… where did… I can't see." The guar coughed heavily as he stumbled around blindly in the black cloud. He fell to a knee, bracing himself with the bottom of his weapon planted in the ground to support his weight. Veris froze up, watching the grunt closely from his position. By his best guess, he was about twenty yards from him and the princess, still not close enough to launch a proper sneak attack. Instead he hid behind a tree, watching with earnest as the grunt's smile curled.

"Bite his arm off Houndour!" The Pokémon charged forward towards the black cloud of soot and smoke he'd created with his jaw menacingly poised for an attack. With an ominous bark he lept into the cloud, finding the guard amidst the fog by tracing his scent from earlier. The next moment was filled with dread for everyone who wasn't the grunt as they could only hear sounds of a struggle. The Houndour was making muffled snarling noises and the guard, was making louder grunting noises from inside the blackness.

"Do I take my chance now while they're distracted?" Veris thought to himself. Everyone, including himself had their eyes trained on the cloud wondering what was happening inside. He looked around again, quickly scanning the area. The grunt still had the princess held under his knee; the escort hadn't moved since the guard showed up and the flower Pokémon, Roselia was still lying in the dirt, unmoving but still breathing. Nobody was expecting him; now was the time to strike.

Veris crouched as he stepped away from the tree trunk, stealthily making his way from the tree to a thorn bush and hiding behind it, using it as cover to sneak closer. The growling of both the Houndour and the guard inside the cloud of smoke masked the light crunches of leaves and the rustling of branches as he touched them. The distance between him, the grunt and the princess shortened. Fifteen yards, then ten; with his ability it would only take a few steps to reach the guard, knock him over and free the princess. But a large root stood in his way; he'd have to leap over it, adding time to his attack and increase the chances of being spotted. Being the cautious type he is, Veris decided against this direction and snuck further behind the guard, more towards his back and settled on this approach. The distance was a bit longer, but he wouldn't have to hurdle a bothersome root to get to his target.

"Okay Veris, you'll only have one good chance at this, you need to focus." His hand was on the hilt of his Kukri, raising it to eye level. Light falling through the tree cover reflected off the blade like a mirror, allowing him to see his dirt brown eyes clearly. Before a hunt, whenever Veris needed to calm himself, he'd do this trick to help him relax. His mother had told him as a child that the eyes were the purest indicator of how both people and Pokémon alike were feeling. Even through stone faces and blank body expressions the eyes remained true to the person's mood. As Veris looked into his own eyes he could see his resolve and focus in preparing to strike. The intensity of his own stare even startled him a bit, but at the same time told him he was ready to fight.

"Good… time for the hunt." Veris took in a breath, held it in his chest and slowly exhaled through his nose. Its sound was nothing more than a whisper beneath the snarling of the Houndour and the guard, still fighting inside the smog cloud. There was no more waiting. Veris sprang to life, standing up and lunging for towards the grunt.

"Get off of me!" A loud roar accompanied by a high pitched whimpering stopped Veris dead in his tracks. He looked up in time to see a black blur shoot out of the cloud in an arc and land on the trail to Veris left. As the smog dissipated around the thing, the grunt's Houndour could be seen standing with a limp in its back right leg. Furthermore, there was a large crack in the bone white mask like covering over its eyes and a small stream of blood could be seen trickling down its face and leg where the limp was.

"I thought you Magma Storm brutes were tough, but that was pathetic." The guard's voice sounded as he stepped out of the cloud still standing confidently, but Veris could tell his halberd was being used mostly to prop himself up. The guard's clothing was torn in places, having claw marks along his stomach and chest. A few droplets of blood could be seen down his right arm that held his lightly bloodied weapon. But for the most part he looked much better off than the Pokémon he'd just been fighting as the canine couldn't put much weight on his back leg. Every time he did, he would tense up and look back at the leg in pain before back to either the grunt or the guard.

"Did you really think a member of the Mentha Family's personal guard could not handle a lone puppy? Pathetic… How about you join the fight too? At least then it'd be a fair fight." The guard taunted as he looked at the guard who still was on top of Princess Cervina.

"Yeah right, you just want me to get off the girl and let her escape. That's not happening."

"Then there's no way you can beat me. You've got two options. Either you surrender the princess, take your mutt and get out of here. Or I kill both of you." The guard twirled his bladed lance around above his head a few times before lowering it to a combat ready position.

"Or we could take the third option." The grunt smiled as he looked over at his wounded Houndour. "We overwhelm you with our power; kill you and that bloke over there…" Veris' heart froze thinking he'd been spotted, but the grunt pointed towards the princess' escort before continuing. "Keep the girl for ourselves and I give her to the chief. I'm sure he'd love a new plaything to have some fun with on those really long nights."

"H-how dare you! Lady Cervina is not someone's plaything!" The escort finally spoke up for the first time since Veris and the guard arrived earlier.

"Houndour shut him up. He's annoying me." The Houndour curtly looked in the direction of the escort and limped over to the Roselia's body that was between them. He bit the flower Pokémon's rosebud again and tossed the unresponsive Pokémon towards the escort, smacking him in the face with its body.

"Fiore! Please be okay!" The princess cried out, tears streaming down her face as she watched the Pokémon's limp body fell into her escort's hands.

"She's still breathing princess, you needn't worry about her." The escort reassuringly spoke to her as he held the flower Pokémon in his arms delicately.

"Enough of this nonsense. Houndour, it's time we called for backup!" The canine nodded in response, ignoring the pain in its back leg and lowering itself on all fours. His mouth opened and he arched his back, thrusting his neck high towards the clouds and began howling. It started with a bark at first, then becoming a constant low pitched cry that rapidly increased in pitch and volume. The dog took a breath, resuming his cry from earlier, only this time at a panicked and significantly quieter whimper. He tried to howl again but each time he spoke his throat made a gurgling noise. Everyone looked at the Pokémon in shock, except for Veris who stood over the Pokémon's body, sitting on top of it with the blade of his Kukri thrust through the dog's throat and silencing the Houndour's cry.

"Shh. It'll be over soon." Veris sombelry whispered as he removed the blood drenched blade of his machete from the dog's neck. He placed his weapon off to the side, away from the growing pool of blood dripping from the wound through the Houndour's throat. Veris knelt closer to the dog's face, seeing the eyes begin to glaze over as life faded from his body. Sighing apologetically, Veris grabbed the dog's snout and rubbed the dog's snout soothingly as he lay the Pokémon on its side. Kneeling over the dog's body, he grabbed the snout again and with a jerking motion pulled it towards him. Two loud cracking noises echoed through the canopy of trees as the Houndour's life was extinguished. Without saying a word, Veris stood up, grabbing his Kukri and slashed the air before him, letting the looser blood form a red streak before the grunt and the princess in an ominous threat.

"You can't call for backup with a dead Houndour, can you bandit?" Quiet rage brewed in Veris' voice as he looked from the dead Pokémon to his former master.

"Wh-where did… where did you come from? Who are you?" The panicked grunt asked looking from the dead Pokémon behind Veris, to its killer. His eyes trembled in fear as did the rest of his body as Veris slowly took a step towards the Magma Storm grunt.

"Me? I'm just a simple huntsman from the village you just burnt to the ground… her village." Veris pointed the tip of his Kukri towards the princess and her captor. The grunt flinched, falling back from Veris and off the princess, who still remained prone for a few moments after his weight lifted off her. She ran past Veris and hid behind the guard as did the escort who was carrying the barely conscious Roselia in his arms.

"You… you bastard! I'll kill you for what you did!" The grunt stood back up, drawing a small dagger held on his side and blindly thrust it towards Veris' chest. He stepped back, dodging the first of a series of frantic but uncontrolled attacks by the grunt in he tried to avenge his Houndour. He slashed and stabbed but each attack was either dodged or parried by Veris' blade, but he was forcing Veris back with his attack. The grunt forced a kick into Veris' stomach, keeling him over at the waist and leaving himself vulnerable. With no hesitation, the grunt went straight for Veris' neck, revenge plainly visible in his eyes. Veris smirked, raising the flat of his blade up to parry the attack with strength that knocked the weapon out of the grunt's hands. As the grunt watched his weapon flip through the air away from him, Veris showed his opponent little mercy and left a large cut along the inside of his arm. The Magma Storm grunt fell to his knees, grasping his bloodied arm and holding it tightly as pain spread through his arm and his body. Veris looked at his opponent with little sympathy in his eyes and knelt down beside him.

"You're out of options now. I suggest you leave while I still feel merciful towards you." The grunt nodded his head quickly and pushed himself to his feet and stood back up, running away from the threats that stood nearby and into the woods. Veris turned back around looking towards the guard, the princess and her escort who each sported different looks on their faces. Amidst the ensuing silence Veris took the chance to clean his Kukri, taking a leaf from a low hanging tree branch and wiping some of the blood off its surface.

"Well… that was impressive work son." The guard grinned stepping forward as Veris re-sheathed his machete. "That was a good plan of yours, and you swiftly took care of that Houndour before that became a real problem."

"Aren't you mad I let him go?" A quiet grin on Veris' face, realizing he'd inconvenienced the guard by letting the grunt run with the wound on his arm.

"I do wish you could have captured him for me." The guard admitted, turning around towards Princess Cervina and dropping to a knee with his arm crossed over his chest. "But the first task of my job as a Mentha Family guard is making sure her highness is safe from harm. With all due respect your highness, what happened to your escorts? Why are you by yourself?"

"They're back in the forest somewhere." The princess spoke softly, sounding somewhat sad as she looked back over the hill Veris and the guard had arrived at earlier. "They were fighting more bandits and there were too many of them for me to be safe. They told me that I should leave and take Garrison with me."

"Please accept my most sincere apology sir guard, princess." The man, Garrison apologized taking a kneeling position like the guard had. "If I had been stronger, we may have avoided this situation completely."

"Garrison, it's not your fault." The princess knelt down to beside the man, placing her hand on his shoulder. "We should be thankful that we're safe now thanks to this man… who I don't belive I've heard your name yet."

"It's Veris. Veris Blackthorn." He may not have dropped to a knee like both the guard and Garrison did but he did at least cross his hand over right hand over his heart and nodded politely.

"Thank you Veris for your help today. I would be honored if you could escort me to Camelia Town a few days east of here." She walked towards Veris holding her hand out towards him. Veris had never had a chance to take a good look at the princess before having only seen her from a distance in public gatherings. Despite her dirty appearance from lying in the ground beneath the bandit's knee, she still looked proper for a princess. The waviness of her waist length hair reminded Veris of his mother, only dirty blonde in color and unkempt from her struggles with the grunt from earlier. The struggle was further shown in the tears and muddy streaks along what was her dress, supposed to be white with a flowing falling green leaf pattern that collected in a pile towards the bottom around her knees. Green seemed to be a good color for the princess as even her eyes were a faded green color.

Veris reached up with his hand to hold the princess' in his but saw that the ring he'd stolen from her estate was still on the pinky finger of his hand. Thinking quickly he raised both hands up placing his left with the ring underneath her palm so she couldn't see it and clasping her hand in between his two.

"Normally princess, if it were a request from you personally, I would be more than happy to assist." Veris raised the princess' and his own to his lips, removing his right hand and kissing the top of the princess' hand. "But I'm afraid I must decline. I need to find my brother and make sure that my own family is first. I'm sure you understand."

"Yes, I understand sir Veris. I wish you luck in finding your family."

"Thank you m'lady." The guard stepped forward placing his hand on Veris' shoulder.

"Hey, thanks for your help today. The Mentha Family is certainly in your debt."

"Oh I think you're a bit less in debt to me than you think." Veris mumbled under his breath as his ringed pinky finger twitched behind his back.

"Say something?" The guard asked leaning closer to Veris.

"No, it's nothing important."

"If you say so. But really though, if you find your family, and can make sure they're safe. We could really use your help over in Camilla Town." The guard offered his hand to Veris looking to shake it. "A huntsman like you would make a fine assistant to the guard." Veris took the man's hand and shook it firmly with his right hand.

"I'll think about it." Veris' eyes narrowed as he held the guard's hand. He threw the guard's hand down firmly, pulling him off balance before his hand clenched in a fist and punched the guard in the side of the head. He stumbled back a few steps bumping against Garrison and looked at Veris angrily.

"What was that for?" He growled at Veris, holding the side of his face as his cheek throbbed in dull pain.

"That's for attacking my brother earlier you ass." Veris mockingly waved the back of his left hand to the guard as well, showing off the ring he'd taken from the estate. "Consider this payment for my services today."

"What the? How dare you! Come back you bastard. You're no better than those bandits!" The guard called out as Veris spun on his heel and ran back up the hill he'd snuck down earlier. At the hill's crest he spun around again and mock bowed before the guard who was trying to give chase but only made it half way up the hill before turning around again and racing well out of his reach.

The echoes of the guard's cursing Veris' stealing the ring floated through the trees as he made his way back up the path they'd taken into the forest towards the Mentha estate. Nothing much had changed in the brief time he'd left except the sun had set further into the sky becoming dark as night approached and making the smoldering fires of buildings stand out more intensely. He exited the cover of the trees into the yard behind the mansion, quickly running around the edge of the house and down the pathway towards the main road of the village, retracing his steps until he found the spot the guard branched off towards the mansion. Without hesitation, he turned to his right, making his way further into town and towards the main square.

The village center was a shamble of its former self. What used to be a place full of communion and togetherness, the symbol of the villagers' unity and harmony had been turned to piles of scorched earth. Collapsed vendor stalls here, ash piles that used to be intricate displays of goods over there, nothing about the center was as it should be. Even the mighty oak that stood proudly in the center of the village for was a wilted mess of its former self. The trunk was scared with slash marks made across its base at arm height, the bottom branches had been burnt barren and a handful of embers still smoldered in the middle branches like ominous smoldering orange eyes. Seeing the abandoned and decrepit remains of what used to be such a happy place in Arrowroot, doubt started to creep into Veris' mind that his home was going to be unscathed. It had probably met the same fate already, but had his family? The thought of finding Olin and his mother pushed Veris forward towards the eastern most part of the village where his home was.

On a clear day like it was this morning, Veris would easily be able to see his home, even from the village center. It was right beside a large valley where the village farmers would herd their livestock and grazing Pokémon to feed. Even on nights when the lanterns were lit he'd at least be able to follow the light trail to his house and see its outline from about halfway home. Tonight there were no lanterns to guide him as the ash black cloud of despair blocked out the setting sun completely and shrouding the town in a faux night blackness. There wouldn't be any way to see what was going on around his home until he got there.

A distant flash of red-orange light in the direction of his home caught Veris' attention. He focused as much of his attention that way as he could, hearing the sounds of metal clashing on metal. Another red-orange light and Veris saw a black silhouette in front of the light source with a second beginning to charge toward it as the light was extinguished. The more he moved down the trail towards his home, the sounds of a metal clashing with more metal continued to ping across the landscape.

"-rno!" Veris heard a quiet voice, but could tell it was a yell coming from the direction of his home as another burst of red-orange light lit up the distant area. Another small black outline was illuminated towards the bottom of the light source. A louder cry of pain soon followed as well as the scent of something that had been singed. Veris grit his teeth and a scowl came across his face as he jumped to the conclusion his home had been destroyed. There were hardly any other buildings in this area, and the smell of wood and burnt straw was coming from that direction among others.

"Olin… please be okay." Veris thought to himself as he heard more clinging of metal echoing across the valley, much louder this time telling Veris he was close to its source. He was now close enough to see a small flame floating off the ground between levels of a fence post in the distance. The sound of heavy breathing soon accompanied more of the metal.

"-t you wait! If my brother was-" The whisping flame Veris had seen earlier darted to the right before the sound of suffering filled Veris' ears. "Damn you! Ver… Veris could kill you if he was here!"

"That's Olin!" As soon as he realized it, Veris' eyes glazed over with hatred at whatever thing was hurting his brother. He quickly unsheathed his Kukri and summoned all the strength he could into his feet. He just had to make it around this last turn and he'd be a short sprint from his brother and his home.

"-ke big brother won't be saving you." A quieter voice sounded as Veris made his way into the turn. He was close finally close enough to see some form of detail begin to form near the source of the noises. The floating flame from earlier seemed to be moving back and forth in place almost like it was on the tip of a tail. As it flicked to its right with Veris fully rounding the corner, he saw the flame brighten up in intensity and illuminating the area better and telling Veris all he needed to see to know he had to fight. The light from the flame revealed a person wearing the same style clothes as the grunt Veris had fought from earlier standing on top of Olin as a Pokémon stood to their side, looking human like in appearance but a lot smaller

"Ferno? Mon! Monferno!" The Pokémon cried out as Veris finally left the turn and raced ahead in a dead sprint toward this other Magma Storm bandit kneeling on top of his brother.

"What is it Monferno?" The grunt curtly replied seeing the fire monkey pointing in Veris' direction. He followed the gaze pointing and saw Veris charging towards him, weapon drawn and poised for attack.

"Get off of him you son of a bitch!" Veris howled as he slammed his body into the person's chest, knocking him off his brother and sending both of them to the ground, Veris rolling over twice from the momentum he'd built up and on his knees. He stood up again and ran towards the grunt a second time, Kukri in hand raised over his head with murderous intent in his eyes.

"Brother! You're here!" Olin cheered as he stood up and drew Taiyō from behind his back, holding it in his right hand.

"Monferno, intercept with Mach Punch!" The Pokémon ran forward with surprising speed as its fist took on a soft blue outline. Beore Veris could react to the threat, the Pokémon's fist connected with his stomach, stopping his movement in one fell swoop. As Veris bent over the Monferno lept up and spun around, slapping Veris with its burning tail and knocking him back a step. Veris placed a hand on his cheek where the tail hit him, feeling a burning sting on his cheek that radiated heat. "Well I'll be damned, your brother actually showed up." The grunt laughed as the Monferno ran back to his side.

"Ferno! Mon Monferno Mon!" The Pokémon angrily looked at the two brothers, the blue mask around its eyes adding to the look of intimidation it was giving off as his tail fire intensified.

"You okay Olin?" Veris asked looking his brother over. Much like the princess had earlier, Olin's appearance showed that he'd been fighting with the grunt and this Pokémon, the Monferno for a bit. The right arm of his tunic was either burnt off or torn off. He couldn't tell how it was gone, but he knew it was. Dirt and mud was caked along his arm, and he had dried blood on his face. There just wasn't enough light to tell how badly Olin had been beaten up. But he could see that Olin's trusty hat had stuck with him through the fight as Olin jogged to the field and placed it on his head.

"Yeah, now that you're here I couldn't be better." Both Olin and Veris looked towards the bandit and the Monferno, all four of them surveying their new opponents.

"How strong is the Pokémon?" Veris asked looking over the Pokémon as he hopped in place on the back of his feet.

"Pretty strong. He's gotten a few good punches on me. I'm pretty sure I'll have a bruise tomorrow." Olin admitted as the Pokémon boasted its power, having his tail flame intensify in another burst of energy. "And he's skilled with his fire moves. He can use Ember and he can do this move where he turns into a wheel of fire and rolls towards you. He might be a challenge even for you brother." Olin turned to Veris with a half smirk on his face.

"Olin please, you should know better than anyone that I'm the fastest in our village. Nobody can beat me in terms of speed." Veris spun the handle of his machete around in his hand, catching it and readying himself for a fight. As he grasped the handle he felt tingling sensation run down his arm. He looked at his outstretched arm seeing a faint band of blue lightning arcing around his arm and towards his Kukri's blade. "And nobody ever lays a hand on my brother without having to answer to me."

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><p><strong>AN: There you go reader, that makes two chapters in the books. I'll try not to have another two month gap between this update and Chapter 3, but I can't make any promises just yet. Like I said earlier, I'm trying to be more patient with this story in both planning and writing. I hope that despite the gap, this was a satisfying enough update for you guys. Until I see you next time, be it on Evolution or in a future chapter of this story, this is DrPhill signing out and I'll see you later! **


	3. A Brother's Noble Heart

**A/N: Welcome back friends. We've got another chapter here for you and it didn't take me two months this time to update it, hooray!  
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**Veris: Alright we're back in business. Let's get this going shall we doc?**

**DrPhill26: Well someone's eager to start aren't we... It's a shame you're not going to use any of that energy in this chapter.**

**Veris: Yeah I'm looking forward to... wait what?**

**DrPhill26: Oh I didn't tell you yet? I'm trying something a little bit different with this chapter and we're going to see what happened to Olin during the time you were with the guard and Princess Cervina. That's not a problem is it?  
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**Veris: No I'm okay with that, I'm just a bit surprised is all. You ready Olin?**

**Olin: I'm ready brother. I won't let you down.  
><strong>

**DrPhill26: Then how about we take a little trip back to the beginning of Chapter 2 and pick up the story again from the little brother's perspective? Enjoy yourself reader!**

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><p>"So it's your fault our home is being destroyed!" Olin charged ahead in blind rage towards the guard standing before him and his brother, fist raised high ready to knock him firmly on his ass. He threw an angry right, but before he realized it Olin found himself lying on the ground with the guard's halberd pointed inches away from his throat. He let out a pained cough as the guard placed his foot on Olin's back, pressing his heavy frame on top of him.<p>

"You bastard!" Olin heard his brother yell from behind him. "Get the hell off him before I gut you like a Magikarp."

"Threatening the royal guard? Big mistake punk." The guard sneered back at Veris. "You realize standing against the guards is akin to threatening the Royal Family. I could have you arrested for that."

"Some guardsman you are, threatening the citizens of the village he's sworn to protect, during a time of crisis no less. You're a pathetic excuse of a guard."

"As a member of the distinguished Mentha Family guard, my only concern is the welfare of the Royal Family. I could honestly care less about what the vermin who live in the town, like yourself and this little maggot here think of me." Unsympathetically the guard ground his foot into the base of Olin's spine making him cry out in pain. He tried to throw the guard's weight off him but was unsuccessful as the guard moved his foot up between Olin's shoulder blades to keep his movement only to a pained squirm.

"What do you need from us?" Olin froze up, feeling the venom dripping off of Veris' hate filled words. Perhaps better than anyone, Olin knew you did not want to get on his brother's bad side if at all possible. Even though he would see a different side of his big brother more often than most in the village, Olin couldn't deny that Veris had earned a reputation as someone you did not want to make angry. He was a lot like a thunderstorm in that sense, in that you could see his anger from miles away and even start feeling it inside you if you got close enough to him. For the most part, Veris could control his temper, or at least take it out on a hunt or when he went fishing. But if you were foolish enough to do something to set him off, like harm his younger brother directly in front of him, you would receive his full wrath in an instant. Yet somehow, Veris was restraining his storm-like fury as the guard held Olin hostage. And that's what scared Olin the most.

"Finally willing to listen are we?" The guard laughed as he raised his weapon away from Olin's neck, finally giving the trapped boy a chance to catch his breath. "The regular guard is too preoccupied with protecting the villagers than with whom they should be to send us reinforcements at the mansion. Since you two aren't busy evacuating, we could use your assistance in protecting the mansion from more bandits."

"You've got to be kidding!" Olin retorted. "We don't have time to help you, we need-"

"Olin!" Veris interrupted his brother's protest with a sharp yell. "I'll help you." Olin couldn't believe what he was hearing. Back at the lake both of them agreed that they needed to make sure that mom would be safe, that their home was okay. What was he thinking going off to help the guard before knowing his family was safe from harm?

"Brother, what are you saying? We have to find mom!"

"I said that _I'll_ help him Olin, not that _we'd_ help him." Olin saw a soft expression in his brother's eyes. "I want you to go ahead, find our mom and make sure she's okay. I assume that's fine with you… sir."

"Much better. The Mentha Family thanks you in advance for your service." Finally the guard stood off Olin, a rippling relief washed through his body. But it was short lived as the guard kicked him in the side, snickering as his heavy footsteps jogged away while Veris' footsteps approached him.

"Are you okay Olin?"

"I think so.*cough* I should be fine when I *cough* regain my breath." It hurt even to breathe, let alone speak to his brother. The guard had kicked Olin right below the ribs and knocked the wind out of him for the second time in as many minutes.

"I'll try to get one in on him for you okay. That son of a bitch deserves one right between the eyes."

"Don't focus on that right now Veris. Just do whatever the guard is making you do and then come back to our home as soon as you can. I'll meet you there."

"Right, I'll be back soon, I promise." Veris helped his younger brother back to his feet, patting him on the shoulder a couple times with a smile before chasing after the guard.

"Hey Veris!" Veris stopped once more to look at his brother. "Be safe brother."

"You too Olin, be safe." Veris turned back towards the guard and jogged off, quickly falling in stride with the guard. Olin meanwhile stood hunched over, hands on his knees as he still struggled to gain his breath. He saw his hat had fallen off his head again in the attack, having been stepped on and misshapen. Olin bent down, picking up his hat and punched the indented part back out to its full shape before placing it on his head again. He found the sweet spot he liked wearing it in, with one of the tricorn points being slightly askew above his right eye.

"Dammit, my chest still hurts a bit." Olin thought to himself. He still needed a bit more time to rest up from the guard's attack. He played the attack over in his head, trying to get a sense of what happened. He charged in, threw a punch but then he was on the ground. He realized the guard had sidestepped him and swept his legs out from under him in one fell swoop.

"Fight smarter Olin, not stronger." Veris' voice played in Olin's head. It was an old piece of advice from a few years back when Veris had started teaching Olin how to hunt. "Reading your opponent is just as valuable a strength as the muscle in your arm, maybe even more so."

"I'll keep that in mind next time brother." Olin spoke aloud, standing upright and stretching his back. He turned around, making sure Taiyō was still sheathed behind him before running towards the center of town.

It pained Olin to make his way through his village like this, with everything that he'd loved and taken for granted burning to ash and dust around him. Tears fell down his face from both the smoke in his eyes and from the emotional weight of cherished memories being destroyed around him. He passed Mr. Russel's sweet shop, where he liked to celebrate a successful hunt with a candied Rawst Berry. He passed the tavern next door that Veris would celebrate his hunts at with a bottle of wine and then would always save more than a sip for him even though mom didn't like Olin drinking. The wine Veris liked was a bit dry and bitter to Olin's taste, but it was still one of his favorite things in the world. And the happiness this and other memories he had here only made everything that much more saddening to see these monuments of his youth smoldering amongst the burning splinters.

But Olin knew he had to be strong now, he couldn't let his emotions overwhelm him. He had to press onward through the village towards his home and find mom. Veris told him that he had to, and he wasn't about to disappoint his brother. He made his way to the center of town, seeing the curving trail that made its way towards his and Veris' home. The smoke cloud overhead hadn't blocked out the sun just yet, giving Olin enough of a clear view of the area around his home. There was no large smoke coming from the fields surrounding his home, the brief cloudiness that hindered his sight was all coming from the smoke blowing behind him towards the fields. For the moment it looked like his home could be okay.

"Please! Somebody, help me!" Olin heard a voice drifting over the surrounding chaos. He turned around trying to locate its source but he couldn't see a single person in the village center. "Please! Help me!" The voice sobbed out again. Olin was torn; he didn't know what to do. Should he stop his search for mom and try to help this person, or ignore them and continue going ahead.

He made a half-hearted step towards the trail home when the voice cried out once more, bringing with it a worried frown to Olin's face. He didn't want to leave this person if they were truly in need of help. But at the same time, mom needed to be found and Veris told him that he had to be the one to do it. Olin hopped his way back and forth, indecisively bouncing about as the moral struggle inside of him continued.

"What would Veris do if he was here?" Olin wondered aloud, still debating his course of action. Olin knew Veris better than just about anyone since they spent so much time on hunts together. Relying on that knowledge, Olin thought about his brother and all the lessons that he taught him both directly and indirectly. One thing quickly came to mind, and that was Veris liking to take his time and assess whether he needed to take care of something right away or if he could wait a bit longer and hope for a better chance to strike on a hunt. It wasn't practical for the moment but it was good enough for Olin because it told him that he needed more information about his mom's immediate safety than the mystery voice's.

Olin heard the cry for help once more coming from a path behind him and to the right, somewhere back in the burning remains of Arrowroot. He looked behind him in that direction, then back towards the trail to his home, deciding to go a short ways into the trail home. Looking down across the wide grazing field before his home he saw nothing that indicated his home was in danger. No smoke trails billowing in front of him, no clearly obvious signs of damage, no one was even standing anywhere near the few homes around his. If mom was there, she was safe and could afford to wait a little longer. This trapped person could not wait any longer for help.

Olin ran back into the city, following the cry for help down a path of the village he wasn't familiar with. He called out to the voice trying to find its source but wasn't having much luck. The voice continued to call for help, still hoping for someone to rescue it from its danger. Olin found a branching path beside a flower cart, going to his right and called out again when finally the voice heard him.

"Is someone there? Please I'm over here! I'm trapped and need help!" The voice cried out, wavering in pain.

"Hang on! I'll be there soon. Where are you?" Olin yelled in response running down the path. At the end there were three homes in a small cul-de-sac surrounding a well in the center between all three. All three homes had sustained damage in this fire, but only the one on the left was actively burning. The one on the right however, looked close to collapsing on top of itself.

"Over here! I'm trapped in the house." Olin knew he couldn't risk going into the burning home; he'd probably die if he did. So instead he cautiously approached the home on the left, drawing Taiyō from its sheath. Olin grabbed the door, giving it a nervous pull and feeling it was unlocked. He pushed the door in, but it hardly moved an inch. "Is that you? Please hurry!" The voice asked over Olin's pushing against its frame.

"I'm trying… But the door is stuck shut, I can't open it." Olin punched the door in frustration. As he did, he could briefly see a crack of light along the edge of the frame. He pushed closer to the door's edge so he could look inside the home. Sure enough something was in the way of the door, preventing him from entering. "Something's blocking the door. Is there another way in?"

"Y-yes! There's a door to the backyard by the garden." Olin nodded and walked around the side of the house, seeing a row of potatoes and a few heads of cabbage growing behind the house. He moved around the crops and towards the door on the back of the house, holding Taiyō close to the handle as he approached the door. A light push met no resistance, so Olin quickly opened the door and stepped inside, finding himself in a mostly open room with a table and five chairs around it. But no one who could have been the voice was in this room.

"Okay I'm in, where are you?"

"The front room, over by the door." Olin saw an opening from this room that led back towards the front of the house. He poked his head through the opening and saw the front room was a complete mess. What looked like someone's study was completely disorganized and cluttered, like a pack of Buneary had been through and knocked everything out of place. Logs from the fireplace in the corner of the room had fallen over in a mess, covering books that had fallen from an overturned bookshelf. A second, larger one had fallen from closer to the door, and likely was why Olin couldn't open it earlier. But the bookshelf was causing a second problem that had brought Olin to the room in the first place, and that was because of the woman trapped underneath it. A familiar looking girl, with her lengthy golden curls pinned beneath her head much like her frame was trapped beneath the shelf.

"Ellora?!" Olin sheathed his weapon behind his back as he bent down beside the girl.

"Olin! Thank Arceus! Please, can you lift this thing off my legs?" Ellora placed her hands against the top of the fallen bookshelf around her stomach and tried lifting again but failed miserably.

"Of course." He replied kneeling beside the fallen shelf, placing his hand byEllora's as they tried to lift it off her. But the shelf was deceptively heavy and Olin could only move it about a foot up off her chest. "Dammit! This thing is really heavy. You'll have to slide out while I prop it like this."

"Okay." Ellora nodded frantically as Olin repositioned himself for a better grip.

"Here goes!" With all the effort he could, Olin lifted up the top of the shelf off Ellora's chest. She scooted backwards along her back, slowly crawling her way out until her waist was clear. The shelf's weight stabbed into Olin's fingers but he knew he only needed to last a moment longer. Ellora pushed herself backward noticing her knees had cleared the shelf and quickly tucked her knees in to free her feet.

"Okay I'm free!" The moment she said the magic words, Olin dropped the shelf to the floor with a muffled thud. His fingers still stung with pain surging through them as he balled his fists to bring back feeling in his hand. A new feeling soon joined him a short moment later, the feeling of Ellora wrapping her hands around Olin's neck and giving him an appreciative and lengthy kiss on the cheek. A gentle warmth spread through his body as Olin quietly celebrated the rather large victory of getting a kiss from his crush. Ellora soon released Olin from her embrace looking down at her knees while her cheeks began filling with a light pink blush.

"S-sorry… I may have gotten a bit excited there." Ellora bashfully looked from her knees to Olin.

"I uh… I didn't mind." Olin timidly replied, catching Ellora's hypnotic blue eyes for a moment in his gaze. The two awkwardly looked away from each other, staying in silence a moment and forgetting about the trouble going on around them for a moment. "Can you stand?" Olin asked standing up himself and offering Ellora a hand. She took it and Olin pulled her up, but she quickly fell into his chest with a grimace.

"Ow! No, I don't think so. I can't put weight on my leg." Olin looked down towards Ellora's knees, past the orange-brown bodice and white shirt she was wearing and saw one of her legs was clearly bent at the knee, bending against her floor length red skirt.

"May I see it? Your leg I mean, I mean your injury! May I see your injury?" Olin said stumbling over his words. Ellora nodded as he propped her up against the wall of the room. "Where does it hurt?" He asked crouching down to waist height.

"Here." Ellora began hiking up her skirt, pulling it up to expose her left leg. Part of Olin was getting excited; the prettiest girl in the village was pulling her skirt up for him to see? If the village wasn't being destroyed, and she wasn't hurt because of it, this would be a dream come true for him. But Olin didn't have time for fantasies, he needed to help Ellora and so he focused himself and looked at Ellora's injured leg.

Ellora had a pair of small gashes along her calf and another larger and deeper cut just above her ankle. She wasn't bleeding from either of the small cuts, but both times Olin cautiously touched the area around her wound she cringed from the pain. But the cut along her ankle was still bleeding with a pair of small streaks slowly dripping towards her shoeless foot. Additionally this cut was much more sensitive to touch than the other two as even the lightest touch by Olin made Ellora lightly cry in pain.

"How bad is it?" Ellora asked wiping a forming tear from her eye.

"It's not pretty, but I think it looks worse than it is." Olin stated while gingerly setting Ellora's leg on the ground. "Still I'd feel better if we put a bandage on it. Do you have a bandage kit nearby?"

"My father would know where it is, but I'm afraid I don't." Ellora said through gritted teeth, having put too much weight on her injured leg.

"Where is your father, or the rest of your family for that matter? I mean given what's going on outside, I would have thought that you'd…" Olin cut himself off as he saw Ellora look uncomfortably away from him. The fact that Ellora looked to be on the verge of tears again told Olin all he needed. She didn't know where her family was either. "They're probably just as worried about you right now as you are for them." He said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, you're probably right… I hope. I'm scared Olin, I don't know if they're safe. I'm all alone right now."

"You're not alone." Olin stood up, smiling warmly as he gave Ellora a gentle hug. She hugged him back as a steady stream of tears began falling from her face. "You've got me right? I'm here. And I'm sure your family is fine too. We just need to treat your leg and then I'll help you find them."

"What about your mom, or your brother? Aren't you worried about them?"

"Veris? Don't worry about him; he can take care of himself just fine without me. And we live on the outskirts of the village by the grazing fields. I was over there earlier and our home is still standing, which means mom is okay too. The only thing we should be worrying about now, is getting you back together with your family. And I'm going to help you do that." Olin released Ellora from his embrace looking into her eyes, seeing Ellora's pure, heartfelt smile adorning her face.

"Thank you Olin. That's very sweet of you." Ellora said wiping tears from her eyes with her fingers.

"Now let's get back to your wounds." Olin reached behind his back and unsheathed his Kukri.

"Wait, what are you-?"

"Relax Ellora, I'm only using this to cut up a makeshift bandage for the cuts on your legs. Could you hold Taiyō for a moment?" Olin asked offering the handle of his machete to Ellora. She nodded, taking the weapon and examining it as Olin pulled his right arm out of his tunic. "Okay, now I need you to cut the sleeve off my tunic."

"Are you sure? What if I hurt you?" Ellora worriedly looked from Olin's trusting smile to the blade of his machete. It looked well maintained to her, meaning it likely had a very sharp edge. A sharp edge that could hurt Olin if she wasn't careful.

"You won't hurt me." Olin quietly laughed as he waved the limp sleeve from inside his tunic. "See, I already pulled my arm out. Just grab the edge of it with your left hand, pull it away from me and stab through the sleeve with Taiyō. All I need is a hole and I can handle the rest. Ready?"

"Okay." Ellora said after a deep breath to prepare herself. She grabbed the end of Olin's sleeve like he'd told her and lightly jabbed the tip of his machete into the sleeve. She rolled the blade over in her hand to widen the hole a little more before hooking the inside of the hole at the tip and pushing up and away from her. The sound of ripping fabric stitches accompanied Ellora sending Taiyō through the top of Olin's sleeve, leaving a good size hole in the tunic.

"Good, that's perfect. I can handle the rest." Acting quickly, Olin pulled the entire tunic off his head, leaving him shirtless and showing off his agile looking upper body. He turned his back to Ellora as he grabbed his tunic and pulled the hole farther apart. The small hole grew rapidly until he'd made a long strip out of his sleeve. Grabbing his weapon from Ellora once more, Olin pulled the fabric along the blade's bend, ripping the tattered sleeve off his tunic. "And like that, we've got a bandage. Now hold out your leg please."

Ellora did as she was told, with Olin guiding the heel of her foot to rest on his bent knee. Seeing it up close again, Olin decided he should clean the cut first before putting the bandage around it. So before dressing the wound, he asked Ellora if there was any standing water at her home. She nodded, telling him there was a large bucket over in the garden. Olin left quickly, bringing the bucket in the house and splashed a few handfuls of its contents on Ellora's wound. After ripping another small chunk from his bandage, Olin gently cleaned skin around Ellora's cut, apologizing every time he felt her tense up from the pain. After the brief cleaning, Olin grabbed the sleeve bandage and wrapped it twice around Ellora's ankle cut and tied it tightly together to apply pressure to it and stop the light bleeding.

"There, I think we're done here." Olin smiled as Ellora placed her leg on the ground again. She wanted to show her appreciation for Olin's help, but she couldn't hide the discomfort on her face as she put some weight on her leg again. "It still hurts doesn't it?"

"Only a little bit." Ellora said through the pain. "It does feel better than before, thank you."

"But you can't walk on it?" Ellora shook her head disappointedly. "Guess I've got no choice then." Olin put his tunic back over his head, sticking his now exposed right arm through what was left of the torn sleeve hole and knelt before Ellora with his back to her. "Hop on."

"Huh? What do you mean hop on?"

"I mean I'm going to carry you." Olin laughed looking over his shoulder back at the perplexed girl. "You can't walk with that injury of yours, and your family must be worried sick about you. We'll go faster if I carry you. So let's go, hurry up and get on." Ellora was hesitant to at first, but knowing there was no other way besides Olin carrying her, she sat on his hips and wrapped her arms around him. Olin placed his hands beneath her knees for her support as he stood up. His hat began to fall off his head but was caught by Ellora as it fell to the ground.

"You uh… you dropped this." Ellora giggled as she tried to place the hat on Olin's head again.

"Why don't you wear it for a bit?" Olin offered. "It's just going to keep falling off my head anyway if you're behind me like this."

"Okay." Ellora placed Olin's green hat atop her head. It was a loose fit, but she got it tight enough on her head that it wouldn't fall off.

"I wish I could see it right now, I bet it looks good on you." Olin chuckled as he stood up once more, Ellora resuming her grip across his chest. "But let's go find your family first."

With Ellora on his back, Olin slowly walked through the back of her home, exiting the garden and walking out to the front of her house. Fortunately for the two of them, the fire at the house two homes away had died out, so they weren't in any immediate danger from fire. Not to mention that as long as it didn't reignite, Ellora's home would be spared from the destruction. With that hopeful omen, Olin began jogging carefully back up the dirt path that had brought him to Ellora's house.

Coming up one of the branches of a forked path, Olin asked if Ellora's family had an emergency crisis plan in response to unthinkable incidents like this. Olin and his family had no real need for one, considering they lived on the village outskirts. If something happened in the village like a fire, their home would most likely be safe. But Ellora's family lived directly in the village itself, and needed a meeting point in case they got separated. Ellora told him that her family's plan was to meet at the edge of the tree line just past the well on the south side of the village. Olin knew exactly where he needed to bring her, being commonly asked to fetch water by his mom from that well, and took the opposite branch to head south.

Ellora's home was already on the south side of Arrowroot, so it didn't take long for Olin and her to reach the southern outskirts. From here, there was only one path that you could take and that was the one that led to the well. Despite knowing where he needed to, Olin let Ellora guide him towards their destination, watching out for larger rocks so he wouldn't trip over them and drop her. A few minutes of walking down the path and the simplistic well was in view.

Normally it would be a quick climb up the hill for Olin, but Ellora being carried on his back added to the time it took them to reach the water well. Both he and Ellora began looking around the surrounding field for a sign of her family. Olin wasn't able to see anything beyond rolling green hills and short trees in every direction. It was hard enough making out the wild Pokémon in the fields, let alone trying to find a person like he was supposed to. After a moment of scanning herself though, Ellora pointed him towards the edge of the forest beyond the hill they were on and towards their right. He had to squint his eyes, but with Ellora's help Olin too was able to spot what she was pointing towards. Standing next to the base of a tree just inside the edge of the forest was what looked like a young boy who had his arms wrapped around the tree cautiously.

"Randall! RANDALL! Is that you?!" Ellora yelled from Olin's back towards the child. "It's me, Ellora!"

"My ears…" Olin silently complained with his ears ringing from the loud scream.

"Olin, that's my little brother Randall. That's him! My family is okay!"

"I'm so… happy for you." Olin shook his head to try to clear the ringing in his ears.

"Well come on, let's go see them. Onward Olin!" Ellora spurred Olin's legs with the back of her feet. Apparently her excitement in seeing her family safe from harm had made her forget about the pain in her legs.

"I'm not a Ponyta Ellora." Olin chuckled as he repositioned the excited girl on his back.

"You're right. Rapidash is much more fitting. You're strong like one, majestic like one and warm-hearted like one too. So onward Olin the Rapidash!" Olin was thankful Ellora couldn't see his face after her playful compliment because the way his cheeks were lighting up were more like a baby Pichu's than the majestic fiery stallion she'd just compared him too.

"Alright, hang on Ellora!" Olin began slowly jogging downhill in the direction of the child they'd both seen. During their descent the child ran into the forest leaving their sight for a moment, but he soon returned with three more people. A man, a woman and another taller boy were now joining the first boy in waving for Olin and Ellora to make their way over there.

"Mom! Dad! Eric! I'm here!" Ellora happily waved her hand with Olin's hat in it above her head.

"Don't drop my hat now." Olin laughed, only noticing the waving hat from the shadow it cast in front of him.

"Relax Olin, I won't drop it." Ellora's laughing voice said over the cries of excitement from the group of four as Olin made his way closer to them. A short moment later, Ellora's mother and soon the rest of her family began sprinting out of the forest canopy, into the grassy fields.

"Ellora!" All four of them called in unison, each one saying something at the same time afterwards making it sound like gibberish, but obviously was some form of "I'm so glad you're safe."

"I think you can let me down now Olin." Ellora softly spoke, choking back tears of relief as Olin slowed to a stop and got down on one knee. Ellora hopped off his back, now using him to help her stay standing as she leaned into his shoulder. But before either of them could brace themselves, Ellora's family had thrown their arms around both Ellora and Olin, suffocating them in their combined love.

"Thank you Arceus. Thank you Arceus for bringing her safely to us!"

"Ellora! I'm so happy you're safe."

"I was so worried!"

"Big sister! *sniffle* You're here!" Each of Ellora's family members continued to speak at once, gushing their love of being safely reunited as a family and crying tears of joy.

"Mom, dad, Eric, Randall. It's okay now. I'm here, we're a family again. I'm so sorry that I worried you." Each of the four responded at once, still crying over their reunion.

"I can't… I can't… breathe!" Olin gagged, pushing against the vice-like snare Ellora's family had trapped him within. "El-Ellora… do something!"

"Oh! Uh, right. You guys can…" Ellora began but noticed her family wasn't listening to her; they were still emotionally overwhelmed by the moment. "You guys can… YOU CAN LET GO NOW!" Everyone except Ellora covered their ears, dropping out of the embrace to shield their ears at the loud scream. Unrestrained by the family and with the exhaustion of everything he'd done today starting to catch up to him, Olin fell down on the soft and welcoming grass.

"Thank you… Ellora." Olin panted as he tried to catch his breath. He rolled over onto his back seeing all five members of Ellora's family standing in a circle around him. "Hello everyone, I'll just be done here… catching my breath. Don't mind me."

"Thank you so much son for escorting Ellora to us." Her mother said wiping a tear from her eye. "We're very grateful to you."

"Who's your savior Lori?" Her father asked as everyone's eyes shifted to the only girl of the family.

"This is Olin Blackthorn." Ellora replied pointing at Olin, who offered a friendly wave from the ground. "He found me trapped in our home because the-"

"Trapped!" Ellora's parents said in unison, at a volume that rivaled Ellora by herself. "What happened honey?" Her mom asked worriedly.

"I'd like to know that myself." Olin added as he found the strength to sit up. "Why were you all separated in the first place?"

"We were out picking berries. There's a group of Oran bushes that we like picking from over by the grazing fields." Olin nodded as he stood to his feet. He knew the berry patch she was referring to. In fact it was at those fields he saw Ellora for the first time, and immediately developed a crush on her.

"Then why wasn't Ellora with you?" Olin wondered.

"I had a stomach ache this morning. So I stayed home, hoping I could have a quiet, relaxing day with my books. Obviously though, that didn't get to happen." She replied.

"So what happened when the fire broke out? What started the fire?" The father asked.

"Bandits." Olin replied, a scowl forming on his face. "Me and Veris ran into one of the Royal Guards on our way back from Lake Valor and he told us what happened. It was the group called Magma Storm. They're responsible."

"So that must have been what I saw." All eyes focused on Ellora as she spoke. "I was just in the living room reading a book when I heard a noise coming from outside. I looked through the window and saw these men in brown and red clothing with a few Pokémon standing in front of the Crawford family's home across the street from us. They were talking for a bit, and I saw the Pokémon set their home on fire."

"That's horrible!" Mom said in shock.

"Is our home alright? Is that how you got trapped? What happened?" Dad asked clearly concerned.

"Well, as I was watching them, I thought one of the Pokémon was looking towards me. I think it was a Houndour, but it was bigger and scarier looking than a normal one. And it had curved horns on its head too."

"Actually that might have been a Houndoom." Olin commented. "Houndour don't have horns on their head until they evolve into a Houndoom. I've never seen one before myself but that's what Veris told me once."

"Okay, so the Houndoom was looking at me and it kept staring towards our house. I got scared and tried to back away when I heard it bark and I got startled and knocked over the bookshelf in the room by accident. It fell on top of me and I couldn't get free. That's where these cuts came from." Ellora pulled up her skirt around her ankle and showed her family the bookshelf injury with Olin's sleeve bandage wrapped over it.

"Oh my goodness. No wonder you took so long to get here. There's no way you could have walked on that." Mom continued as dad looked at the wound more closely.

"I was too scared that those men would find me that I didn't call for help right away. All I could do was pray to Arceus that they wouldn't look in the house. It felt like I was there forever, quietly praying that they'd leave, and then I didn't hear them talking anymore. So I finally called for help. That's when Olin found me, rescued me, bandaged my leg and then brought me here."

"Olin! You're a lifesaver! Bless you Arceus for bringing Olin to Ellora in her time of need." Mom wept as she flung her hands around Olin once again. This time he was able to at least breathe, but the tightness of the mother's hug still stung with the rest of the aches Olin had acquired through the afternoon.

"I'm glad she's safe too." Olin said returning the hug. "But I really shouldn't stick around much longer. I need to find my own family and make sure they're safe."

"Oh but of course!" Mom quickly broke off her hug, practically pushing Olin back towards the hill. "We can always thank you properly later. Go find your family!"

"Olin wait!" Ellora said chasing after Olin before he could react. He turned around, receiving yet another hug from the young beauty that made his heart skip a beat. Her hug was brief, but she still held Olin in place with her hands resting on his shoulders. From this spot Olin finally was able to get a good look at her wearing his hat. She looked even more beautiful than he'd thought she would. The slightly weathered hat only seemed to add to Ellora's natural beauty, and Olin wanted nothing more than to hold onto her forever.

"Thank you so much Olin, for everything. I never would have made it here without you."

"I'm just glad you're safe Ellora." He smiled back at her.

"What are you going to do when you find your family?" Olin paused a moment to think.

"Honestly I'm not sure. But I doubt we'll be staying near Arrowroot. Even if our home has survived the fires, there's no reason for us to stay in a half destroyed village."

"Do you have any family nearby? Grandparents, maybe an uncle who live near here?"

"No, it's just me, mom and Veris. Mom was an only child and her parents passed on a few years ago. As for my dad I never knew him; he died before I had a chance to get to know him. And both mom and Veris never talk about him so I wouldn't know if his family is nearby."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Ellora's smile faded slightly from her face. "Well if you have no place to stay. You should come with us to the Pastorian marshlands. There's a small village there that we have family in. It's not as big as Arrowroot but it's a nice place with very friendly people who could help you out until you get back on your feet again."

"Sounds like a nice place. Will you be leaving there right away?"

"Now that we've reunited I imagine we would. The sooner we leave the sooner we'll get there, and the less likely we'll run into those bandits."

"When I run into mom and Veris, I'll be sure to mention this to them. Thank you for your generosity."

"There's supposed to be a festival in a few weeks too." She added as Olin's eyes briefly sparkled. "The Crogunk Festival is usually a few weeks after the Lifestream Festival, and it celebrates the guardian Pokémon of the marshlands. If you were in the area, I'd love to go to the festival with you."

"I uh… I'd like that a lot." Olin meekly replied as blush filled his cheeks and a warm smile adorned his face. Ellora also blushed slightly.

"Great…" Ellora took a step back, taking Olin's hat off her head and holding it before him. "Here's your hat back."

"You looked good in it. Just like I thought you would." Olin said taking the hat from her hands and putting it on his head. He began adjusting it into his favorite sweet spot and as he did, Ellora surprised him with one last parting gift. She threw her arms around him once more and kissed him a second time, this time on the lips. Olin was too stunned to even move as her softness pressed against him, as her warmness enveloped him. If the moment she hugged him earlier was one he never wanted to end, this newest moment was becoming his own personal heaven.

"Thank you again for everything Olin." She whispered before giving him one last brief peck on the lips and slowly walking away from him. She waved at him a moment, a hop in her backwards step as she approached her family. Mom and dad placed their arms over her shoulders in a loving backwards hug.

"May the divine Arceus bless and protect you Olin." The mom said and Ellora's family shared the same well wishes. Olin raised his hand in a smile, saluting the family.

"May the divine Arceus protect all of you as well." Olin smiled, waved once more and turned back towards the hill with the well with a spring in his step.

Today had been one of the strangest, most unpredictable days of Olin's life. First there was Veris' catch and kill of the Gyarados, then his describing this unbelievable lightning shroud that came over him during the fight. There was the encounter with the Absol, the village being destroyed before his eyes, and the incident with the guard. And yet despite all the upheaval, the turmoil going on around him on what was supposed to be one of the darkest days of his life, Olin couldn't wipe the smile off his face that he'd gotten when Ellora kissed him. He'd had a crush on her for well over a year, and all this time quietly dreamed that a day like today would come along. He'd dreamed of what it would be like to kiss her, but he had no idea it would feel as energizing as it did. His heart was racing from an excitement that fueled his entire body and every ache in his body from the day was gone and forgotten. Olin pressed his fingers against his lips remembering the soft sensation that was there a moment ago.

"I can't believe she actually did that." He said aloud to no one in particular. "I can't wait to rub it in Veris' face. That'll teach him to make fun of me earlier." With redoubled efforts, Olin continued his sprint home.

A blackened cloud still loomed over Arrowroot Village as Olin followed the trail back into the village. The large fires that burnt wildly and uncontrolled earlier in the day were mostly dim puffs of light smoke and an occasional small flame barely clinging to life. Olin did his best to put the destruction out of mind and focus on the brighter side of things. Aside from the high he'd been on from Ellora's kiss earlier, he had his reunion with Veris and mom to look forward to. It didn't take long for him to make his way back into the center of town, standing besides the massive oak tree in the center of the village. The tree had definitely seen better days, being wounded by small cut marks and the tree's lower hanging branches were burnt barren. Olin placed his hand along one of the tree's cuts, tracing the slashed wound with his fingers. It hurt to see the once proud oak tree like this; the symbol of Arrowroot's prosperity and vitality being reduced to a husk of its former self. He shook his head regretfully pushing off the tree and jogged towards the path that led home.

With twilight dawning on the horizon, Olin could begin to make out his home from on the dirt trail. It wasn't the clearest picture because of both the dwindling light and the smoke thickening the air around the village, but it still looked to be untouched despite all the madness going on in the village. Olin's smile grew larger as he anticipated meeting up with Veris and his mother. The two of them had to have been waiting for him for a while already. But he had to take care of Ellora first; it was the right thing to do. Veris would probably have some dry comment about having to make them wait for him while mom would be the same way Ellora's parents were in simply being glad that he was safe. Then when he explained why he was late, mom would be proud of Olin's noble heart while Veris would be picking his jaw off the floor. It would feel so good to knock that smug smirk off his face for once.

"Mom! Veris! It's Olin, I'm here!" He yelled as he rounded the long turn before his home. He slowed to a stop as he reached the gate, not bothering to unlock it and instead vaulting over the gate itself and landing in the yard. "Veris are you here yet? Mom, are you still in there?" But Olin's only response was silence. His heart fluttered nervously as he approached the door, his hand hovering over Taiyō's hilt.

"Anybody home?" Olin reached the steps and cautiously approached them. Something didn't feel right to him. If his mom was still home there was no way that she wouldn't have flung the door open on his arrival and choked him with a hug. And if Veris was here, he would have told Olin to shut up and be quiet. Maybe he was the first one here? For a moment it made , but it wasn't adding up. Why did mom leave the house if he and Veris were going to come back here on seeing what happened in the village?

"Maybe… maybe she left a note." Olin thought to himself as he stood beside the front door. He placed his hand against the door frame and gave it a push. The door opened and Olin stepped inside his home, hardly able to see anything. The only light in the home was from the fireplace where a few errant coals were still burning from this morning's breakfast. The irony of having to reignite the fire despite what happened today made Olin shake his head in annoyance as he slowly approached the dying flames.

After grabbing about for a while he found the fire poker and teased the coals to try to reinvigorate the flame. He had little success, so he grabbed some dry leaves held in a box beside the fire and tossed them on the coals. They lit up at once in an orange flash, burning long enough for Olin to add some small twigs. A moment later he added half a log from the pile beside the fireplace and blew on the flames to aid their strength. It took a few tries, but soon Olin had a small, controlled fire burning with enough light coming from it to see in the house.

With his eyes adjusting to the flickering light behind him, Olin could confirm that he was the only one in the house. Their home was a large but plain one room home with their three beds on the opposite side of the room from him. The meal table sat against the wall on the Olin's left beneath mom's hanging spice rack. Olin walked between the two rocking chairs that sat before the fire and over towards the table. The table looked like it normally did, with a candlestick sitting on top of a linen cloth, but no note was on top of it. The lack of a note really drove home the fact that Olin was by himself, and a momentary fear set in on the possibility of mom and Veris being hurt and unable to make it back here, or worse.

"No no no, that's not possible." Olin shook his head to reassure himself. "Veris is a strong fighter. I bet he already took care of what the guard wanted him to do and he's on his way back here… but then why isn't mom here?" Olin placed his hand on his chin in deep thought. "Oh I know! I bet Veris got home before I did and found mom here. Then instead of waiting for me, he got mom out of the village and made sure she was safe. And now he's on his way back to find me and will bring us all together. Yeah, that sounds like something he'd do." He nodded his head, approving his logic.

But a problem showed up in Olin's logic soon after he thought it. Veris didn't know that he'd gone to rescue Ellora and reunite her with her family. When they'd separated by the guard, Veris told him that it was his job to go find mom and make sure she was safe. If he'd gotten back here, found mom but not Olin, and brought her to shelter like Olin thought he would, Veris would then search the entire burning village for Olin before he came back to the house. What if he'd gotten himself hurt in that time? No, there was no way Veris could get himself hurt. Or could he? Olin remembered the way Veris was acting earlier in the day, he could have been exhausted from his fight with the Gyarados, and there was the tax that was put on him by the lightning shroud that apparently came over him in that fight. Olin still couldn't fully believe it, even if Veris wasn't normally the type to lie about things. But even assuming it was true, there was no way to know if the tax of using this shroud doubled his exhaustion or had some other affect. Olin needed to find Veris before he hurt himself.

He quickly turned around and made his way to the door, pushing it open and leaping down the steps but as he looked up he froze to a stop. Standing before him on the other side of the closed gate was a man and some kind of Pokémon standing half as tall as the human with a flame burning on its tail. Olin couldn't see much with the darkness of night setting in, but he could make out that the man was wearing a dark hooded cloak, tied around his neck, concealing the lighter colored clothing underneath it. The Pokémon beside him looked at Olin curiously beneath the blue mask over its eyes as its tail flame continued to dance back and forth.

"Who – Who are you?" Olin cautiously asked with his hand instinctively hovering over Taiyō's hilt.

"Us? The human asked lowering his hood and revealing his face. His hair was jet black like a Murkrow's, being slicked back behind his head. Adding to his Murkrow like vibe was his curvy, mischievous smile that looked at Olin in an almost mocking way. "No one important, we're just a pair of traveling hunters who were in the area. Isn't that right Monferno?"

"Mon Monferno!" The Pokémon beside the man loudly called its name, beating its chest twice as it did. Olin wasn't convinced, something about the softness in how the human spoke was suspicious.

"So what are you doing in Arrowroot?" He asked defensively.

"Like I said, we were just passing through and saw smoke on the horizon. We wanted to help." There was that soft spoken voice of his again. He sounded awfully calm for someone coming to a burning village. "Do you live in this home alone?"

"No. I live here with my brother and my mother. But neither of them is here, so I was going to look for them."

"I see. That's rather, worrisome, isn't it Monferno? Why don't we help him reunite with his family?"

"Freno!" The Pokémon's tail flame briefly flared up behind his back, casting a brief light on the human's side. A metallic glint caught Olin's eye as he saw a sword strapped to the man's side. It had no sheath and again had a vibe like that of a Murkrow's in its shape. The sword was about a foot and a half long by Olin's best guess, and was curved like a bird's talon, with an upward curve extending to the tip. Additionally there was a small curved notch in the blade by its base on the blade edge of the sword.

"Right, we would love to assist in reuniting you with your family, if you would allow us." The man continued, half bowing but not taking his eyes off Olin as he did. His stare sent a cold shiver down his spine. As much as he didn't trust this guy, Olin couldn't deny that he did want the help in finding Veris.

"Alright. I could use the help. What's your name?" Olin asked, trying his best to silently draw Taiyō from its sheath and hide it in his tunic behind his back.

"Damien Sombra. And this is my Monferno." He added motioning an arm towards the Pokémon who once again loudly called his name.

"I can't say I've seen a Pokémon like that before."

"Ah yes, that's understandable. Monferno are a rare Pokémon even in Sinnoh. You can only find them in areas way to the west of here such as by Lake Verity, which is where I am from originally."

"Ferno Mon Mon!" The Pokémon barked taking a few steps towards up the trail to Arrowroot and pointing at it. "Monferno!"

"I agree Monferno, we should get moving. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can reunite mister… I'm sorry, I don't believe we caught your name."

"Olin, Olin Blackthorn." Olin answered as he unlocked the gate and stepped past Damien onto the dirt path.

"Ah, Blackthorn, well let's help you find your family then Olin Blackthorn. Would you mind leading the way for us?"

"Yeah, sure." Olin shot a curious glance at the man and his Monferno. He just couldn't shake the suspicious feeling he was having that something about this man was making him uncomfortable. But he took the lead anyway, walking towards the long curve. The man and his Monferno followed him at a distance with the man whispering something to his Pokémon. Olin only focused on the two of them, and Taiyō which he now held in front of him, blocking Damien's view of it with his chest.

"Veris if you were here, what would you do?" He silently asked the machete. "Would you have taken this man's help or ignored him?" Olin focused on the sound of his boots crunching in the dirt as he made started exiting the turn. Of course he knew the trail so he could afford not to focus so much on where he was going and listen to the sounds he and Damien were making.

"Always listen to your surroundings Olin." Veris' voice said in his memories. So that's exactly what he did, focusing exclusively on Damien's footsteps instead of his own. The more he listened to Damien's steps, the more it felt like Olin wasn't leading him to Arrowroot; it was more like Damien was following him. Whenever Olin changed the pace of his walking, either increasing it or decreasing it, Damien copied him. The more he did it, the more it felt like Damien was trying to mask his presence from him. He might not have even been thinking about it consciously. He was a huntsman or so he claimed, maybe he was just this used to masking his own steps it was second nature if he followed someone. But still, Olin gripped Taiyō's hilt tighter with worry in his grip as he exited the long curve in the trail.

All of a sudden Damien's footsteps picked up to a sprint. Olin spun around on his heel seeing Damien racing towards him, his sword drawn and aimed toward Olin. He didn't even notice his hand instinctively raising Taiyō up to block the thrust, only the pinging of him parrying the thrust upward past his shoulder really alerted Olin to the fact he was being attacked. Damien clicked his tongue in frustration as his momentum carried him past Olin. The Monferno cried its name again as he too charged, his fist glowing a faint blue color towards Olin. Again Olin felt his body react before he could, lowering himself to Monferno's level and blocking his punch with the broadside of Taiyō's blade. Before the fist stopped glowing, Olin grabbed it with his free hand, pulled Taiyō's back and threw a punch of his own to the Pokémon's cheek. The Monferno was knocked back a few steps but stayed on his feet, regaining his balance before rushing past Olin to stand by Damien's side.

"Impressive Olin Blackthorn, I was not expecting you to be this perceptive." Damien frowned in annoyance.

"You're not the only one who's a hunter." Olin replied, aiming Taiyō threateningly towards Damien and the Monferno. "My brother and I have been hunting for years. You need to be perceptive to succeed as a huntsman."

"Indeed. That is a skill Monferno and I know all too well."

"Monferno." The Pokémon growled an angry response, brushing the cheek Olin punched with the back of its hand.

"Why did you attack me Damien? Or is that really your name even?"

"No no, my name really is Damien Sombra. I wouldn't lie about something like that." Damien commented while looking at his sword. He rose it up towards his neck sliding the tip of his blade under the knot holding his cloak together and pulled it loose. He then threw it off is body in a flourish revealing a second tan cloak, only shoulder length instead of full bodied and covering his chest. Beneath the cloak he wore a similarly colored shirt with a single dark flame stenciled in the center of his chest. Black pants and brown boots finished his look off.

"Then why are you here? Why did you attack me?"

"Oh come now Olin, that's really quite simple. You were able to figure out that I was a threat." Damien casually twirled his talon-like sword as he spoke. "It's a shame I have to kill you. With your natural instinct you would be quite valuable to us in Magma Storm." Olin's eyes shot wide as he stood there in stunned silence.

"Did you say Magma Storm?" He asked with a sullen expression.

"So you have heard of us? No wonder you were suspicious of me." Damien casually continued like the revelation of his being at least partly responsible for what happened in Arrowroot was no big deal. "Tell me Olin, what was it that gave me away? Was it the footsteps? It was my footsteps, wasn't it? You're a hunter yourself, of course you'd pick that up."

"No, that wasn't what gave you away." Olin firmly grabbed Taiyō's hilt, pressing it firmly into his hand. "It was that smirk of yours. The look that said you were better than me."

"Ah yes that." Damien laughed. "It's hard for me to stop that even if I try because it's true. I am one of the captains of this little raider group, so naturally I have a tendency to look down on people."

"So you're really with Magma Storm? You guys are responsible for what happened today?"

"I do believe I've said that, yes."

"Then that's all I need to hear." Olin gripped Taiyō tight and charged ahead towards Damien. He closed the gap, extending his arm to his side and threw a horizontal slash towards Damien's left. Damien blocked the strike with his sword, holding it in place with the curved groove and pressing his free hand against the back of his sword.

"Well now, there's a little fire in those eyes of yours." Damien sneered, pushing Olin back with his sword. Olin came back again with the same strike, being blocked a second time. He pushed through the attack, beginning a series of alternating strikes aimed at Damien's torso. Wild anger filled each of Olin's strikes that only increased with each block of Damien's sword.

"Ferno!" The Pokémon loudly called out as he watched Damien sidestep a heavy blow that made Olin stumble past him.

"No Monferno. Do not interfere. I would like to see how skilled this boy is." An irritated frown came over the Monfero's face, but he respected Damien's wish, agilely springing backwards away from the fight.

Olin saw an opportunity to strike and lunged forward, thrusting his blade towards Damien's exposed side. But the Magma Storm fighter showed agility of his own, diving forward into a roll to dodge the strike. He stood up out of the roll, turning towards Olin with his Murkrow-like smirk growing longer on his lips.

"There's that instinct of yours again, I like your style." Damien ran his free hand across the area Olin had attacked, stopping when he felt a tear in the undershirt he was wearing. "Ho-ho, you almost got me back there too. It really is a shame I have to kill you."

Now Damien went on the attack, holding his talon sword across his body and making a swift strike outward to Olin's right. He caught the blade in the bend of his machete, but the strength behind Damien's blow knocked Olin off balance. He spun around, repeating the horizontal slash and again Olin's defense was knocked back a step.

Damien's pursuit was relentless, bullying Olin with the strength in his attacks. And yet his strength was controlled, aiming blows towards areas that continually forced Olin off balance. It was taking all he could to just defend these increasingly heavy blows. Damien sneered as he aimed a high slash towards Olin's face. He ducked down beneath the blow, finally seeing an opportunity to counterattack. But before he could bring Taiyō into striking position Damien raised a knee to Olin's body, hitting him square in the face knocking him on the trail. Olin quickly shook the stars out of his eyes in time to see Damien looking to end Olin with a heavy blow to his sprawled out position. Desperately, Olin rolled to his side, narrowly missing the slash aimed at his head. From his back Olin pulled his legs into his stomach and gave Damien a firm kick with both feet to the stomach, knocking him away from his sword. As quick as he could Olin got to his feet, seeing the disarmed Damien and grinned. He was between his opponent and the talon sword; finally he could go on a counterattack.

Again Olin charged with Taiyō in hand and aimed a slash towards Damien's right arm with the agile swordsman pivoting off his foot to dodge the strike. But Olin stopped himself mid slash and curved his attack outward towards a surprised Damien. He tried pulling his leg back to dodge but couldn't dodge enough as Taiyō caught his leg, drawing blood on a cut to his upper thigh. Olin grinned hearing the pained inhale of Damien as he stepped backwards to avoid his attack. He turned himself to face Damien and thrust towards his chest. Damien threw a short blocking blow into Olin's attacking arm, pushing the attack past his side, and quickly following up with a punch to Olin's chin.

"Monferno!" Olin looked at the Pokémon as it called its name, seeing a flame burning in its mouth before spitting orange bolts of fire in his direction. Olin jumped back, watching the attack land on the trail where he had stood a moment ago. He looked up at the Pokémon again, seeing it had grabbed Damien's sword with its tail and threw it towards the Magma Storm captain.

"You stay out of this!" Olin yelled running towards the Pokémon with Taiyō ready to strike the Fire type. The Pokémon looked up at Olin excitedly, punching his fists together as the tail flame behind him flared up in strength.

"Monferno, dodge his attacks and use Fury Swipes!" The Pokémon nodded to Damien's call as Olin swung down his machete towards the smaller Pokémon. It easily leapt backwards doing a flip and lading on its feet with its fingers beginning to glow white. Olin came in again, trying to aim lower towards the Pokémon but his efforts were not paying off as the Monferno continued to nimbly weave through his repeated lower thrusts. After another back spring, Monferno threw his arms out wide and leapt towards Olin. He rolled over in the air, slashing down with his right claw which Olin blocked, but left him exposed to the left that grazed his stomach. Monferno landed on the ground, springing upward again with another flurry of his clawed attacks that continued to inflict minor scrapes across his arms and chest.

"Now use Mach Punch!" As Monferno landed once again his entire fist became enveloped in a light blue energy. With one more powerful leap, the Monferno thrust all of his small frame into Olin's chest, knocking him completely off his feet and onto his back, rolling over once from the impact and sliding to a stop on his knees.

"Do not let up! Use Flame Wheel!" Olin hardly had time to catch his breath as the Pokémon's body became enveloped in flames and he jumped into the air, tucking his body into a roll as the flames became more vibrant. Landing on the ground, the Monferno's attack rolled towards Olin, lighting the ground behind him on fire. Olin waited, reading the attack with Taiyō at the ready as the Flame Wheel approached him. It suddenly jumped off the ground towards Olin, whose patience in reading the attack was rewarded as he could dodge the wheel midair, feeling the heat radiated off its body.

"Dammit. This is tough." Olin thought to himself as he took a moment to catch his breath, watching the rolling fireball turn carry itself a moment farther before turning around back towards him again for a second try. "Two on one is hardly fair. But I can't run; I need to fight."

"Ferno!" The attacking Pokémon charged ahead once more. Olin knew he needed to stop this attack in some way, gripping Taiyō strongly in his hand he charged towards the Monferno with a strategy in mind. Olin knew the attack needed to jump to hit him because of his height advantage, so he used that to his advantage. When the Monferno's attack leapt towards him, Olin quickly slid along the ground, dragging his hands behind his body as he let the attack leap over him. The breeze of the attack knocked Olin's hat off his head, but now he was in an excellent position to launch an attack on Damien. Olin stood up from his slide and sprinted towards a surprised Damien. Olin threw himself at Damien, bringing Taiyō down across his arm, blooding his blade as the Magma Storm captain cried out in anguish.

"Damn you! Fine, we'll attack you together if that's what you want." Damien grabbed at his wound with his free hand seeing the blood on it, and let loose a pained cry. He brandished his sword above his head and threw a heavy slash to Olin's arm. He caught the attack in Taiyō's bend, only for him to be pushed back by an angered punch to the face by Damien's bloodied hand. "Now Monferno get in here with Mach Punch!"

"Monferno!" The Pokémon roared loudly as his tail flame intensified and he swiftly charged to Olin. The Pokémon threw a swift punch, but Olin's blocked the attack with the broadside of his machete. The Pokémon sneered at him as his other fist began glowing blue and connected with a punch to Olin, knocking him backwards. Before Olin could steal a breath in moment, he heard Damien's footsteps approaching behind him.

"Don't forget me!" Damien said brandishing his talon sword above his head and swinging it down towards Olin. He could only just get Taiyō into a blocking position, partly deflecting the blow to his side as the heavy hit sent Olin to the dirt. Another crushing blow was met with the broadside of his machete, with Olin pushing Damien back through sheer strength.

"Ferno Mon Monferno!" Olin turned his head back only to see a cascade of small embers racing towards him with no chance to dodge. Olin braced himself as the fiery volley crashed into his back, sending heated pain across his spine. He let out an agonized cry as each small bead of fire struck him. But Damien wouldn't let him have any mercy. As soon as the attack finished, he approached the still reeling Olin, grabbed the wrist that held Taiyō and pulled it out from his body.

"An eye for an eye Olin." Damien menacingly hissed as he brought his talon sword down across Olin's arm in the same way Olin had his earlier. Pain erupted across Olin's arm as he dropped Taiyō to the ground and fell to his knees, clutching at his bloodied right arm. Again no mercy was shown by Damien as he brought a knee to Olin's face for the second time, sprawling him out across the dirt path. He knelt down on top of him, pressing the tip of his sword against Olin's chest with his Monferno moving beside Damien.

"D-damn you, you scum!" Olin angrily barked at the Magma Storm captain on top of him.

"Oh your words, they wound me so." Damien mockingly retorted. "You know I truly do not wish to have to do this to you. You've proven that you have not only good instincts, but commendable skill with your blade to fight both of us off as long as you did."

"Go to hell."

"Shh-shh-shh let me speak. After all if you don't, I will kill you." Damien moved the tip of his sword up Olin's chest towards his neck. Olin fearfully watched the bloodied tip move closer to his neck, pressing his head back in the dirt trail in a futile effort to get away from the sword. "So I have an ultimatum for you Olin. I promise you that I will spare your life, on the condition that you join us in Magma Storm. We have a camp not too far from here. We can bandage your wound and start getting plans for you to have a Pokémon of your own. I feel like Monferno would be a good fit for you as well. And all you have to do for us in return is offer your services to our future raids. What do you say? Do we have a deal?"

"I already told you, go to hell!" Olin said before spitting on Damien's face.

"Why you…" Damien growled wiping the spit off his face, flicking it back on Olin's face in disgust. "Monferno? If you'd be so kind."

"Just you wait Damien! If my brother was-" Olin was interrupted by the Monferno's tail flame jabbing into Olin's face and him screaming in burning agony. "Damn you! Ver… Veris could kill you if he was here!"

"Is that so?" Damien silently cackled to himself. "Well this Veris must be something important to you if you think so highly of him. Perhaps he is the brother you go hunting with?" Olin smirked cockily.

"Based on how you struggled against me, you wouldn't stand half a chance in hell against him." Olin thrashed against Damien's weight on top of him, but to no success. "He's a much better fighter than me, and he'd kill you in an instant if he was here right now."

"Really now? That is impressive praise. But I'm afraid the reality is that your beloved Veris isn't here now is he." Olin looked around, up the trail towards the town and nothing against the darkened night. The stars were blocked out by the smoke cloud, and the only light source was the Monferno's flame tail flicking back and forth. "So unfortunately my dear boy, it looks like big brother won't be saving you."

Damien grabbed Olin's non wounded left handand held it in place with his bloodied right, using his left to hold his sword above Olin's chest. Olin tried to move his wounded arm, but found the strength had bled free from him. He could barely lift it a few inches off the ground before the pain restrained him, let alone the distance he needed to punch Damien off him. And with Taiyō out of reach, and with Damien preventing him from moving, it seemed that fate had determined now was time for Olin to die.

"Say goodbye, Olin Blackthorn." Damien whispered as Olin squirmed around, still in the seemingly futile effort to be free from his restraints.

"Veris… I'm sorry I let you down… Please forgive me." Olin silently prayed as he desperately hoped for a miracle of his own. With time slowing down around him, Damien pulled back his sword, ready to end Olin's life. A single tear fell from Olin's eye, clouding his vision as the end seemed prepared to embrace him. But rippling in this final tear of life was a shimmering blue flicker of light. It was a brief, almost lightning like flash of blue light that hovered above the dirt trail he was lying on.

"Ferno? Mon! Monferno!" The Monferno cried out seeming to be distracted by something. Could he have seen the light as well?

"What is it Monferno?" Damien asked taking his eyes off of Olin

"Get off of him you son of a bitch!" A familiar, rage filled voice filled Olin's ears.

"Brother?" Olin thought as he watched in awe as a blue shaded blur crashed into Damien, knocking him off Olin's chest. He heard a crashing sound of bodies tumbling into the dirt beyond where he lay and hope filled his heart. It fueled his movement, re-energizing him and masking the pain in his arm as he sat up looking beyond him. He could see Damien, on his hands and knees, crawling towards his sword and another person farther beyond him. This man was holding a bent machete much like Olin's Taiyō, propping himself up on a knee. As he stood tall, brandishing his weapon in his left arm, a thin blue band of lightning arced its way up his arm, past a studded gray and red vambrace and along a blue colored tunic. At his shoulder the lightning dissipated around his face, a face adorned with short disheveled brown hair and a familiar pair of brown eyes filled with malevolent rage. It was Veris.

"Brother! You're here!" Olin cheered, thankful that his prayers had been answered. He looked around quickly and saw Taiyō lay just behind his back and picked it up as Veris silently ran towards Damien.

"Monferno, intercept with Mach Punch!" Once more the Pokémon's fist glowed with a soft-blue outline as he swiftly raced towards Veris, throwing a punch firmly into his chest and stopping him in his steps. He then spun through his punch, slapping Veris with his fiery tail and forcing Veris back a step.

"Well I'll be damned, your brother actually showed up." Damien laughed as the Monferno ran back to his side. Olin pushed himself back up to his feet and began making his way to Veris' side.

"Ferno! Mon Monferno Mon!" The Pokémon yelled at the two brothers as its tail flame grew in size yet again.

"You okay Olin?" Veris asked as Olin saw the hatred fall from his eyes for a moment, only showing concern for his brother's well being. Olin looked at Veris as he picked up his hat and dusted it off. Apparently Olin wasn't the only one who'd been involved in some sort of scuffle as Veris' clothes were tattered and covered in dirt. And it looked like both his tunic and the Kukri machete in his hand both had blood on them. Whether it was Veris' own blood or someone else's he couldn't tell, but regardless Olin was more than ecstatic to see his big brother by his side again.

"Yeah, now that you're here I couldn't be better." Olin smiled, watching the venomous hatred fill Veris' eyes as he looked at Damien and the Monferno. Olin did the same, looking at the frustrated look on Damien's face and smiling.

"How strong is the Pokémon?" Veris asked as the Pokémon began hopping in place.

"Pretty strong." Olin admitted, running his hand across his chest. "He's gotten a few good punches on me. I'm pretty sure I'll have a bruise tomorrow." The Pokémon called out his name again, puffing up his tail flame once again in a burst of energy. "And he's skilled with his fire moves. He can use Ember and he can do this move where he turns into a wheel of fire and rolls towards you… He might be a challenge even for you brother." Olin teased looking at Veris and seeing a smirk on his brother's face.

"Olin please, you should know better than anyone that I'm the fastest in our village. Nobody can beat me in terms of speed." Olin quietly laughed to himself as he saw Veris spin his machete in his hand, then stood there in awe as he saw a blue band of lightning arc from Veris' weapon to his arm.

"He wasn't kidding. He really has a lightning cloak." Olin thought to himself in stunned silence. "Damien is in serious trouble now."

"And nobody ever lays a hand on my brother without having to answer to me." Veris arrogantly grinned, grasping firmly on his Kukri's handle with the sparks intensifying around him.

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><p><strong>AN: There you go reader, that's Chapter 3 in the books... or is it technically Chapter 2.5 because we focused on Olin instead of Veris and made no real progress in the chain of events of this story? You know what no, I'm gonna call this Chapter 3, we made progress in building the world of this chapter and obviously we hit the length quota for this story. Now I will admit, when I first had this idea of telling what happened to Olin during Chapter 2 for a part of Chapter 3, I thought it would only be a small chunk of Chapter 3 and certainly not become the over 13,000 word epic that it ended up becoming. Part of me feels kind of bad that there's technically no progress made in this chapter, but still, despite the shift in focus, I really enjoyed this chapter and I hope you did too reader. We'll be shifting back to Veris in Chapter 4 again so until I see you again next time reader, this is DrPhill26 signing out, and I hope you have an awesome day.  
><strong>


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